Thankfulness

November is one of my favorite months of the year. So much goes on in our family and in general activity sometimes we don’t pause and enjoy the month that opens our great holiday season. In our family our oldest and youngest grandsons were born in November. In addition, my wife Sharon and I celebrate our wedding anniversary late in the month and close to or on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is our truly American holiday, but thankfulness isn’t limited to just Americans. We’ve all heard and read the stories of the first Thanksgiving and I remember drawing pictures of the Pilgrims, the Indians, and of course the turkeys. They celebrated the harvest and looked toward to the hard winter that their stored supply must get them through. In our current society we have endured some really hard times as a nation but still have much to show thankfulness for. I’ll share a few of the items on my “thankful list.”

I’m thankful that today we still have freedom of religion in this great country. We can worship God in our own choosing and in the way we believe he leads us. Many in this world don’t have that freedom and if we assume we will always have it we open the door to the possibility of losing this wonderful freedom.

Related to religious freedom is the thankfulness of being born a citizen of this great land. A nation governed by laws and not just the whim of one or a few persons. A nation that a group of great men put together with a Constitution that has stood the test of over 200 years. At the same time a nation that has seen fit to change that initial document by the will of the people in order to meet life’s current issues.

Because of our freedom we can be thankful we can live where we want, work where we want, and associate with those of our choosing. Our limitations are only those of God-given talents and the initiative to apply them. We must understand that our overall goals should be to provide equal opportunity and not equal outcome. Outcome should be based upon our taking personal responsibility to take advantage of that equal opportunity.

I also am blessed and thankful for a wonderful family. First, parents that raised and supported my sisters and I so that we might become responsible adults. Also, my immediate family, my wife Sharon, our three daughters, and six grandchildren make life worth living and worth looking forward to.

There are so many things we need to be thankful for. The list could go on for longer than I have space for. I’ll close with just one final item. I am so thankful that I have been blessed with great work. My last fifteen years have been so enjoyable my work has been more like a hobby. Whether my consulting business or my teaching time at Southwestern it hasn’t seemed like work because it has been so enjoyable. Let’s all take some time to think of what we can be thankful for and try to apply our thankfulness year round.