Thanksgiving Itself is a Gift from God

What’s in your wallet?

At the beginning of a traditional week given to travel,

a holiday,

family time,

a long weekend,

and good food,

I wonder what is dominating most of our thinking.

Politics, perhaps… still?

Christmas shopping and decorations?

College football, possibly?

Work?

School, maybe?

Family issues?

Health concerns?

Money problems?

A broken or imperiled relationship?

Some of the above?

All of the above?

None of the above?

What’s in your wallet?

What is the currency you dig deeply to retrieve when things get tough?

What cache do you call upon when the cost of life exceeds your ready resources?

What do you reach for when you feel you can’t continue?

What is the backup you grip when things get out of hand and… crazy… nuts?

All of us have an arsenal of human resources we can easily access to protect our own interests. 

Fear, anger,

entitlement, despair,

calling out and blaming others,

noisy complaining, silent brooding,

score keeping, grudge holding,

cynicism, bitterness.

It’s human nature to panic when we hit a wall. It’s perfectly natural to assess fault to others and readily judge them guilty, careless, stupid, clueless, unfeeling, unlovable, unteachable, impossible, intolerable.

What’s in your wallet?

If our wallets were more filled with gratitude -- real gratitude, not to be confused with the occasional “returning thanks” and “blessings” we fumble and stutter to produce around holidays, in church, or before a Lion’s Club luncheon -- we would not only be traveling much lighter, but we would all be much richer. If our wallets could be loaded to the seams with ordinary gratitude, we would discover a strength for today and a bright hope for tomorrow exceeding all imagination.

What’s in your wallet?

You know what’s really amazing? Even the gratitude itself will have to be a gift from God. We, of our own resources and personal strength, do not have the power on our own to manufacture even one grain or milligram of gratitude.

Thanksgiving itself is a gift from God.

What’s in your wallet?

Gratitude?

If so, give thanks to God, because God is the Only One Who can provide it.

And living it out to the fullest will take the rest of your life, and then some.

‐ Randy Edwards