Thanksgiving is "Thanks-living"

I know this sounds like the name of a Thanksgiving sermon (which I am sure that have preached at some point and time in my illustrious ministry career!). I always do a lot of reflecting this time of the year. We just celebrated Thanksgiving at our house. We continue to carry on a strong family tradition that goes back for generations.
When I was growing up I can remember all of my aunts and uncles and cousins coming out to our farm for Thanksgiving day. My dad owned a couple of flat-bed wagons and would pull both of the them in the side yard for all the food that my mom would fix and my relatives would bring with them! We always nearly filled BOTH wagons with food and fixin's! Then after the feast, while the adults were visiting, all of us kids would find ways to run off all that food we ate! Good times.
Now we have grown children they have kids. It was such a joy to hear my grandkids offer the prayer for the Thanksgiving meal. And my wife and daughters and daughter-in-law fixed enough food to feed a small army! Then after the meal the guys enjoy a new Thanksgiving tradition-watching football while the women folk go shopping! Then, before everyone has to go home, we enjoy the leftovers for supper. But the most important thing is that the family is together. At the end of the day, I am in my reflecting mode thanking God for such a wonderfully close family.
We are not "rich" by the standards of the world. But we have what we need. We have been greatly blessed by God. We have a very nice house to live in (along with a very nice mortgage!), my wife and I drive decent cars (not Lexus or Mercedes-a Ford and and a Kia!), we have ample food to eat, good jobs, good health, and good friends. But the greatest blessing of all is knowing God. I am eternally thankful that I was raised by Christian parents and that the Lord saved me when I was a teenager. And now that I'm getting older I find myself thanking God for even the smallest things. I find that I am a lot happier when I am thankful.
Do I have stress and problems in my life? Sure. But like the Apostle Paul I'm learning to cope with problems and to be content with what I have. I love the words to this Russell Frager song that our Praise team sings "I've found the power to be free, it's in the way You look at me, I call Your name and then, stand in your Grace again and I will always have a grateful, faithful heart."
I pray that the Lord will continue to make my life an expression of thanks for all that God has done for me.
thankfully
The Methmusician