Alan Wyant is pastor at Sharon Baptist Church in Carrollton Township. I remember getting a story a while back that goes something like this - there was a family that every year for Christmas the three children would each get $100 from their one set of grandparents. Many years this repeated on into their adult lives. With this repetition, the children got to the point of never expressing gratitude and their mother began to suggest to her mother that she should stop giving the gift. One year something uniquely different happened, a few days after Christmas each one of the grandkids traveled from their homes of some distance to see their now elderly grandmother at the assisted living facility where she now stayed. This was the first time they had come to visit her there even though she had been there for a few years. Surprised by the visit, one of her friends who knew about the ongoing situation about the gift asked what suddenly prompted the visit from the grandchildren. The grandmother calmly explained with a smirk on her face, ”I guess I forgot to sign the checks.” Now, I know that some of you reading this are sitting there with a smile on your face while beginning to think of something that you might be able to do along these lines, aren’t you?

However, I wonder how many of us are living day to day, month to month and so on yet how long has it been since you showed gratitude for the many gifts and blessings that your Heavenly Father has bestowed on you without so much as a “thank you.”

Or even more, how long since you graced the Lord’s house on the Lord’s day and gave the courtesy of a “thank you.” I wonder even further how quickly God would get our attention if He stopped signing His checks, all those wonderful promises?

All too many of us today are so busy with our concerns and worries that we cannot even begin to see what good things are going on around us.

God tells us in Philippians 4:6-7, “Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel.” CEV

Listen friends, there is always going to be plenty of things to worry about and plenty of people to do the worrying but God wants His children to act differently. So how about this year for Thanksgiving when we get together with our families, we who belong to the family of God, let us be the ones sharing of the good things God has done for us and leave all the complaining about politics, jobs, economy, etc. for others who have no hope. In fact I challenge you to be the ones in your home dictating the direction of the conversations this year and have a much HAPPIER THANKSGIVING!