“GIVING THANKS ALWAYS FOR ALL THINGS to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – Ephesians 5:20 New King James Version.
“The greatest thing is to give thanks for everything. He who has learned this knows what it means to live.” – Albert Schweitzer.
Robert Caspar Lintner said, “Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.” Robert Caspar Lintner isn’t saying anything new because there is nothing new under the sun. (see Ecclesiastes 1:9 NKJV). Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day of the year; it is meant to be observed every day of the year! Our main text, Ephesians 5:20 NKJV, rightly affirms this: “GIVING THANKS ALWAYS FOR ALL THINGS to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: “I am blind, please help.” There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon, the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon, the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?” The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said, but in a different way.” What he had written was: “Today is a beautiful day, and I cannot see it.”
Both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so fortunate that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?
The moral of the story is that we must be thankful for what we have. Having an ATTITUDE of GRATITUDE is a vital ingredient for success in life because gratitude can transform common days into THANKSGIVINGS [Annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year].
This coming Thursday (November 27th) is another THANKSGIVING CELEBRATION in the United States, and I want to wish everyone HAPPY THANKSGIVING in advance! Consider this statement from President John F. Kennedy: “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
