I love Thanksgiving.
I’m thankful that I was raised in a family that celebrated Thanksgiving with large family gatherings, lots of turkey and dressing, Nana’s rolls, and fun with siblings and cousins. It was a holiday about family and food. I have wonderful memories of those years.
As years passed, things changed, still a special holiday, but different. I remember one year it wasn’t so special. I think it was 1968, I was in the Air Force stationed in Kansas City, Mo., far away from family. I went to a crummy buffet off-base for a Thanksgiving meal — not many people there, but a few. It just didn’t seem right. The one good thing about that day was that my wife Peggy was there, too.
It was about two years later that I opened my heart and life to the lordship of Jesus, and things began to change, in many ways. For one, Thanksgiving became more than a holiday, it became an attitude of heart and life.
I began to be thankful to God, for God, for him and his workings in my life and new family. As I read and became more familiar with the Bible, I discovered the “thanksgiving” theme that flowed throughout both the Old and New Testaments.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever ~ Psalm 30:12
Praise the Lord!
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
For his mercy endures forever. ~ Psalm 106:1
Will you join me in welcoming a new “heart of thanksgiving” this season, an attitude of heart and life which will bring refreshing and thankfulness “in everything?”
Yes, Thanksgiving is more than a holiday; it is an attitude of thankfulness to God that can be experienced and expressed every day.
Pastor Louis J. Locke is the founding pastor of Fountainhead Foursquare Church. www.ffccarson.org
