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Cross Words: Giving Thanks
I find it sad in a way that it’s necessary to have a national holiday to remind us to be thankful. As citizens of this country we needn’t strain too hard each and every day to realize we have more to be thankful for than most. Furthermore, as future citizens of heaven - those of us who have been spiritually reborn - “Thanksgiving” should be a permanent way of life.
I’m not advocating the cancellation of Thanksgiving (except maybe for the part where family has to stay over a night or two) because we should be reminded. Frankly we need to be.
Human nature wrestles with our desire to give thanks. We know we can always find something to be thankful for but often times we do not. We realize we should see the glass as being half full instead of half empty, yet we have a tendency to think at times that someone has stolen our glass altogether. Rather than focusing on what’s right we laser in on what’s not.
We remember the biting word someone sent our way a week ago while forgetting the ten encouraging statements we received just yesterday. We dwell on the phone call that wasn’t made while dismissing the ones that were. The “C”  on our children’s report card leaps off the page while the 4 A’s and 1 B seem to vanish before our eyes. We dismiss all that our spouses do for us and instead hone in on what they did not.
The Bible says that we are to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thes. 5:18). We are commanded to and reminded to because it does not come natural. But it should. For we all have reason to be thankful. If you can’t find something to be thankful for it simply suggests that you have never experienced the grace and forgiveness of God. For in that we have all the reason in the world to give thanks.

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