All the slogans are right.  I get weary hearing them all the time, but they are right.  One is that we should not be about thanksgiving but about “thanksliving.”  Another is that Thanksgiving should be not just one day out of the year but every day of the year.  Another is the cry heard round the country this time of year that we are in such a hurry to get to Christmas that we ignore Thanksgiving.  Still another is the call for us to remember this fourth Thursday in November as something other than “turkey day.”  And you add some more that you have heard.  They are endlessly repetitiuous and are most often spoken most by people who complain about everything else too; but they are right.  Developing an “attitude of gratitude” (another slogan and popular sermon title in this country on the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving) is both a gift of grace and an effort of discipline.  We have much for which to be thankful and we have to decide to be devoted to living this way.

So, count your blessings; name them one by one.  What is it really that you are thankful for?  I am thankful for the blessing of a great wife.  We will soon celebrate thirty-six years of marriage and we are now having the time of our lives.  It is more fun now than it has ever been.  We have discovred that AC is better than BC or for those who need translations of acronymns:  After Children is better than Before Children.  I am thankful for a delightful daughter and special son-in-law and a very super son and delightful soon to be daughter-in law.  How blessed I am!  I give thanks for two splendid grandchildren.  Grayson and Jaelynn are like everybody’s grandchildren–they are the best.  I am grateful that they both are in my life.  I am thankful for a fabulous family of faith.  I love FBC Waynesboro.  I have told others that even though I don’t like personal criticism, it is necessary at times and I try to learn from it; but whenever somebody criticizes this church in my presence, I get my hackles up really fast.  I have never loved a church family like I love this one.  What a great staff that God has given be to be a part of.  I am thankful for each one.  And for this community.  Whenver someone talks down about small town life in the south, I want to punch them in the mouth.  I am grateful that I haven’t done that!  Then I would not get to be the pastor of this church:  PASTOR ARRESTED FOR ACCOSTING CITIZEN ON THE STREETS!!  Oh, I could go on and on.  Why not make your own list?

But at the top let’s all put what the Bible always puts as first.  Most of all I am grateful to the God who for His own glory chose to save me from His wrath and to deliver me from fully deserved judgment and set me among His people among whom He has called me to serve as a pastor.  Oh the marvel and the majesty of this great God; oh the beauty and bountiful blessing that comes from His hand.  He is worthy to be thanked and praised; He alone is worthy to be thanked and praised.

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