A Grateful Heart

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope this is a joyful day in which you are filled with gratitude and love. It can be challenging to cultivate a grateful heart through the stresses and messes of everyday life and so, thank God that we have a day to remind us that we should rise every day and be thankful for what we have.

This year has not been easy for our family and you’ve probably been nicked up a time or two as well. Life never goes according to plan, but God somehow shows Himself faithful through it all. In that spirit of gratitude, I want to tell you that I am grateful for you. I’m grateful for this Church we share as members of Christ’s Body who call 717 Sage our spiritual home.

As my family gathers around the dining room table today to share what we’re grateful for, you all will be at the top of my list. We will then pray this beautiful prayer. Whether today or in the days ahead, I commend this beautiful prayer to you as a daily reminder of God’s faithfulness.

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have

done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole

creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,

and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for

the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best

efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy

and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures

that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the

truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast

obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,

through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life

again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and

make him known; and through him, at all times and in all

places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer, page 836