100days-a-year
11-22-2006, 06:27 PM
gratitude\grat-i-tude\ n:the state of being grateful:thankfulness
grateful\grate-ful\agj 1a:appreciative of benefits received b:expressing gratitude 2a:affording pleasure or contentment b pleasing by reason of comfort supplied or discomfort alleviated
latin root gratus see grace
grace\grace\1a:unmerited divine assistance given man for his regeneration or sanctification b:a virtue coming from God c:a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace
I thought it appropriate to do this at this time.I have just come from SuperWalmart and Publix getting last minute fresh items and stuff to prepare our Thanksgiving meal.I saw the best of mankind in traffic,nut to butt shopping carts and stockboys scurrying to fill shelves depleted by mobs of other last minute shoppers.People smiling and letting others in traffic and checkout lines.Sure there were some exceptions not so happy but fewer than normal.
I got introspective on why Thanksgiving is so meaningful to my family.I grew up military brat and the served in the Navy.My personal road was pretty bumpy but I got to see abject poverty and horror in the Middle East,Africa and Europe as well.This developed my relationship with reality and my God.I could not help but be grateful as the Pilgrims were.In a land of plenty with new freedoms unheard of anywhere in the world.Certainly I am a beneficiary of God's grace,and as in the definition not merited by any behavior or status.
Not because I am Christian or American or due to the hard work I do(plenty of people in this world work harder and are far more pious)But simply for the inexplicable reason I was born to a world blessed with comfort supplied and discomfort alleviated.
We are entertaining tomorrow some friends with either no family locally or whacked family.My wife and I hold that while Webster says N and Adj respectively that gratitude is a verb.It is only apparent in action,both deed and word.Tomorrow as we thank God for all the wonderful food and this years gifts it will be bittersweet as we buried way to many friends and an 18month old nephew to cancer this year.That is where the discomfort being alleviated comes in ,we'll share our favorite stories about the ones no longer here.This and knowing that there is more to be grateful for than complain about.The gratitude we feel will be shown in a more concrete form as this weekend kicks off the holiday gift donations and parties we attend every weekend in December.You see a lot of my friends also had very bumpy beginnings and are all too aware that it is grace and not merit responsible for our present happiness if not good fortune.
Happy Thanksgiving and all the best to you and yours tomorrow and I hope you are as content with your circumstances.
grateful\grate-ful\agj 1a:appreciative of benefits received b:expressing gratitude 2a:affording pleasure or contentment b pleasing by reason of comfort supplied or discomfort alleviated
latin root gratus see grace
grace\grace\1a:unmerited divine assistance given man for his regeneration or sanctification b:a virtue coming from God c:a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace
I thought it appropriate to do this at this time.I have just come from SuperWalmart and Publix getting last minute fresh items and stuff to prepare our Thanksgiving meal.I saw the best of mankind in traffic,nut to butt shopping carts and stockboys scurrying to fill shelves depleted by mobs of other last minute shoppers.People smiling and letting others in traffic and checkout lines.Sure there were some exceptions not so happy but fewer than normal.
I got introspective on why Thanksgiving is so meaningful to my family.I grew up military brat and the served in the Navy.My personal road was pretty bumpy but I got to see abject poverty and horror in the Middle East,Africa and Europe as well.This developed my relationship with reality and my God.I could not help but be grateful as the Pilgrims were.In a land of plenty with new freedoms unheard of anywhere in the world.Certainly I am a beneficiary of God's grace,and as in the definition not merited by any behavior or status.
Not because I am Christian or American or due to the hard work I do(plenty of people in this world work harder and are far more pious)But simply for the inexplicable reason I was born to a world blessed with comfort supplied and discomfort alleviated.
We are entertaining tomorrow some friends with either no family locally or whacked family.My wife and I hold that while Webster says N and Adj respectively that gratitude is a verb.It is only apparent in action,both deed and word.Tomorrow as we thank God for all the wonderful food and this years gifts it will be bittersweet as we buried way to many friends and an 18month old nephew to cancer this year.That is where the discomfort being alleviated comes in ,we'll share our favorite stories about the ones no longer here.This and knowing that there is more to be grateful for than complain about.The gratitude we feel will be shown in a more concrete form as this weekend kicks off the holiday gift donations and parties we attend every weekend in December.You see a lot of my friends also had very bumpy beginnings and are all too aware that it is grace and not merit responsible for our present happiness if not good fortune.
Happy Thanksgiving and all the best to you and yours tomorrow and I hope you are as content with your circumstances.