Thanks

So it's November and tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I think November is one of those months that gets mowed over in our haste to buy everything for Christmas. The stores go straight from Halloween costumes for prostitots, to advertizing great Christmas buys you MUST have or die.

I feel badly for Thanksgiving. Maybe it's the generation (or I'm just getting old and un-cool) but people seem to feel as if they are entitled to everything. They lay claim to buildings not theirs by tagging. They line of for free healthcare, food, gifts and countless other gratis goodies. Their hands are out for free toys and easy money.

But where is the gratitude?

When you think about it, we have so MUCH! My children have never known a day of hunger they didn't choose to inflict on themselves. They get a free education clear up to high school and sometimes through college. We have not just one car, but a couple of them. (Granted they don't run well and need fixing, but they have gotten us where we needed to go.) We have a house which isn't cardboard and has running water, along with a flush toilet. We have time for facebook and hobbies. We have some of the best doctors and hospitals in the world. We have places of matchless beauty. We can worship how we will. We have the freedom to vote and to travel wherever we want to go, to bear arms, to speak freely, and to peaceably assemble. The blessings are endless.

Perhaps when we are being grumpy about the check book not lining up or that we have to wait in line at the checkout stand, we can think of those people who don't have any of these things. We can ponder what it's like to have to run a half a mile under gunfire to the phone to find out if a loved one made it out of surgery. We can thank God for making this fabulous world full of interesting mysteries, natural wonders full of peerless, beautiful, intricate detail, animals in prodigious varieties, and an ever-changing kaleidoscope of people and cultures.

It's time to look beyond ourselves and make life better for someone else. Instead of running down to the mall for the unbelievably early Black Friday sale (which they're now having on Thanksgiving...BOO!) go do something nice for someone else. Don't just say you're thankful for something and quit there. Show it. That is my goal for this Thanksgiving. I'm going to be thankful.
By Heidi Murphy