Thanksgiving In Blessing and Afflictions

There was a father and mother of a young man killed in the military in a little church.  One day they came to the preacher and told him the wanted to give a monetary gift as a memory to their son who died in battle.  The minister said, "That's a wonderful gesture on your part.”  He asked if it was okay to tell the congregation and they said that it was.  So the next Sunday he told the congregation of the gift given in memory of the dead son.

On the way home from church, another couple was driving down the highway when the father said to his wife, "Why don't we give a gift because of our son?" And his wife said, "But our son didn't die in any conflict!  Our son is still alive!" Her husband replied,  "That's exactly my point!  That's all the more reason we ought to give thanks to God."

Isn't it interesting that we most often give gifts to God in memorial rather than in appreciation!  It ought to be the exact opposite!  But it's the same way in our prayer lives.  We pray the best and the most when troubles come our  way, not when we are  being blessed.

The above was sent to me by Glenn Hitchcock.  It illustrates how we should pause and evaluate our thinking.  We have so many blessings as Americans and Christians for which to be thankful. When was the last time you gave a gift to God in appreciation for some blessing in life?  Too often we do not realize true worth of something until we lose it.

—Denny