Sunday, November 19, 2017

365 Thanksgivings

Philippians 4:6, 7
In church this morning the sermon was, of course, about being thankful...after all, this week we celebrate the national Thanksgiving holiday. The preacher began his talk with a story. It started me thinking, which meant that about half the rest of his message flowed over me without penetrating my brain.

That's okay. The point in a sermon is to stir the congregation to thought and meditation upon the Word.

The story that opened the message was (and I summarize) this:

A woman who was married to a good man and had two children she dearly loved had, nonetheless, fallen into a state of mild, but pervasive, discontent. Her life seemed lacking in excitement and romance. Her days seemed to have become dreary. Seeking help, she visited a nun for advice. The kindly advice was that she should meditate each day upon one thing she was thankful for.

The woman began to follow this advice, whether or not she felt much like it. Her hobby was photography, so she took a photo each day to symbolize the thing she was thankful for that day. Gradually, her mood began to lighten. Then, one evening after dinner her husband, who was the cook in the family, set her dessert before her. She grabbed her camera to take a photo of the slice of pie and noticed that her slice was the largest. Something clicked in her mind. Her servings were always a little larger than that given to the rest of the family and her husband always presented them with a little smile. That was his way of showing his love for her. He was not the unromantic man she had labeled him.

Of course, the point of the story is that an awareness of the blessings all around us is awakened by stirring up our sense of thankfulness. And stirring up our sense of thankfulness awakens our awareness of the blessings all around us.

Today I am thankful for the message delivered in church this morning that stirred my thoughts toward living with thankfulness.