Pastor's Corner: Thanks and praise

I love the season of Thanksgiving. It's wonderful to have a day set apart to remind ourselves to be thankful for the abundance we have in our lives. If we don't overlook Thanksgiving in our charge toward Christmas, we would observe that this holiday is more than just a fly-over state. We see preludes of Thanksgiving when the harvest comes in, when the fall colors brighten the store fronts, and when pumpkin spice returns to the menus. It's all a foretaste that prepares our hearts for gratitude, but again, only if we take the time to appreciate it.

Thanksgiving does require us to pause, and that can be hard to do in our hustle to close out the last two months of the year. Taking time to reflect and count our blessings requires making a detour out of our hectic schedules. Acknowledging the great and small blessings in our lives as provisions from God requires humility when we'd rather take credit for ourselves. And if giving space for gratitude can be this challenging, then you must know how nearly impossible it is to follow up our offerings of thanks with praise.

And yet, that's exactly what the Psalmist models for us in Psalm 100 where a deluge of thanksgiving and praise cannot help but gladden the heart. Before you move on to news that didn't make it to the front page, take a moment to let the melody of this short hymn pour over you.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

See? That didn't take too long. And now don't you feel a little better? Your heart a little lighter? Your mind a little refreshed? Just imagine how the Psalmist felt!

Now, imagine what sacrificing a few moments of each day to take up the mantle of Thanksgiving could do for the daily anxieties in your life.

That's why I love Thanksgiving - because it can be more than a day off work. It can become a season - no - a lifestyle of feel-goods for yourself while giving God the glory for every moment that He provides.

--

Theresa Danley, CLP

Milk River Churches