We are gearing up for another Iron Bowl, a day of turkey, and a time for college students everywhere to come home and finally re-unite with their family and enjoy some good ole home cooking from their momma. That’s right, it is Chri. . .oh never mind, Thanksgiving (the forgotten holiday) time again!
Of course, underneath all of this, is a time to be thankful. Sometimes it is good just to ponder on our blessings. We live in a nation, that despite her problems, is still a relatively safe and free place to live. We can go to church and not fear for our lives in the process. We can watch college or pro-football over a big plate of turkey and dressing. We can spend time with our families. We should be thankful for any work God has entrusted to us, and seek to be wise in how we use our money.
Not everyone in the world is blessed in these ways. Those of us who have good families, decent incomes, a free nation, and many other blessings should be thankful for all of this. However it is often those with the least who are the most thankful. Those of us who are rich are often times not thankful. Everyone is blessed to simply be alive, and have a chance to have a relationship with God and people.
I say this, and I am probably somewhere in between. I do not have everything I want all the time. But I have far more than I deserve. Even when times are tough financially, or when it is easy to give up pursuing a Christian life, I realize all I have been blessed with. This Thanksgiving, however, I am going to attempt to look at myself as rich, and not middle-class. Compared to what I deserve, I am rich.
What applications can we take from this? I believe that if we were more thankful, many parts of our lives would become better. Particularly, I believe that our politics and evangelism would change. I believe that if we were more thankful for what we had, we would not rely on the state as much. We would work harder and work more. We would have a real family, instead of the state being our family.
Furthermore, if we realized how fortunate we are to have our blessings, we may treat other less-fortunate people with more respect. We may be able to identify with them more. Sometimes our problems in evangelism and communication is that we fail to put ourselves in each other’s shoes. If we did this, we would be more competent communicators and witnesses, and would probably take more responsibilities for ourselves instead of relying on the state to take care of those financially or emotionally troubled.
In short, I encourage everyone this Thanksgiving season to be thankful. Don’t get too excited too quick about Christmas. I love Christmas and look forward to it. But how can we appreciate Christmas as much if we are not thankful first? Thanksgiving has become the forgotten holiday, and thus, we have forgotten to be thankful. The first Thanksgiving was probably the most thankful Thanksgiving. Yet it came at a time when people were starving and freezing to death. I encourage you to look at what you have, thank God for all you have in specific detail, and allow that to influence every part of your life, not just now, but also into the future.
What do you think?
God bless America
Pray for our Troops
Be thankful!
November 24, 2008
Ryan Hampton
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment