What are you thankful for?

As we celebrate Thanksgiving today with friends I can't help but think of what I am thankful for. Usually, for me at least, my list is mostly things like family, friends, health, my job, etc. I am very often superficial in my thankfulness on this day. In other words, I say a prayer thanking God for these things in my life without giving it too much thought. I want to today to be different.

I want to truly appreciate my family and be thankful and deeply grateful to them. For they know me better than anyone else and yet they love me anyway with all my warts and everything. I want to be thankful that I have been blessed to have this family and not focus on our disagreements or differences. I want to thank God for my wife and my kids not just today but every day. 

I want to be more thankful and appreciative of my friends. I am not the most considerate person that I know. Yet, I still have some friends that can put up with my silliness. These people are true saints and I want to be appreciative of this. I want to thank God for bringing them into my life and allowing me to know them.

I want to be thankful for my health. I often complain that I am sore or broken down or getting old, but I am really in great shape compared to so many other people and I take that for granted every day. I want to thank God for my health and give Him the praise for it. I want to be truly appreciative for the health that I do have.

I want to be more thankful for my job. I don't want to have to wait for when we are in economic meltdown to be appreciative of my employer or the blessings that I have been given to have the job I do. I want to thank God for gracing me with the wisdom I needed at the right time to end up where I am today.

More importantly though, I want to thank God for his grace. Without Him in my life, I do not know where or what I would be today. I know that it would not be good and I am thankful that He saved me before I went too far from home to be called back. 

I have been blessed too many times to count by the riches of God's mercy. I love you Lord and I lift my song to worship you my King. Lord, let me be thankful.