November 23, 2010

Giving Thanks.






















I always enjoy Thanksgiving. It gives me a brief taste of the holiday spirit soon to arrive with the onset of Christmas. It gives me time to spend with family and friends and enjoy a laugh or two while eating some of my all-time favorite foods like stuffing and pumpkin pie. Most of all, it helps me reflect on all the ways my family and I have been blessed over the past year. Admittedly, I should remember to be thankful each and every day, but that is often not the case.

We have maintained a tradition within our family (thanks to my lovely wife), that on the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving day we go around the dinner table and fill out a piece of paper with 4 or 5 things we are thankful for. Then, one at a time, we read the myriad of ways God has watched over our family. Some revelations, we discover, have been forgotten over the past year. This tradition is a great way to count our many blessings, specifically, and for our children to be reminded of God's faithfulness to us, in both prosperous and more challenging times.

Spend a moment this week doing the same. Think about it. Be reminded. Be intentional. Most important, be thankful.