Reasons to be thankful
By Staff
Michelle Blaylock, Mom's Corner
Happy Thanksgiving! As I began to think about the article for this week, I also began to think of things that had happened over the last year and how much I have to be thankful for.
In some ways it’s been a difficult year in the Blaylock house. However, I have found that my Heavenly Father, as always, has been very faithful to us.
He has provided us with friends and family to help us through the two surgeries I’ve had.
He has blessed us with everything that we need; notice I said “need” not “want.”
I was watching the news last week and saw how people were mobbing the stores for the new Playstations. It was just plain silly. I could understand the hurricane victims mobbing stores for food, water, and some clothing. Those are necessities, but a Playstation? The people of this country need to seriously re-think their values.
I think we, as Americans, forget how much we truly have to be thankful for, because we are constantly inundated by things we supposedly need from TV, radio, and billboards. I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to better ourselves and our lives, but I believe we should also temper it with thankfulness and common sense.
For example, as I mentioned last week the pilgrims didn’t have any of the things we consider common conveniences, such as clean running water, heat, air conditioning, a stove, or electricity. The pioneers of the 1800s would have also been thrilled to have had these conveniences. When I read the “Little House on the Prairie” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, I find myself being very thankful to have modern conveniences and to have stores like Kroger and Wal-Mart that aren’t a day’s travel away or more.
However, to be truly thankful I think we also need to look at people around the world today. There are literally millions of people who still live like our early pioneers lived. They have no running water or share an outdoor faucet with many other community families. Many people still wash their clothes and themselves in the nearest creek. In case you haven’t guessed, I’m not a “roughing it” kind of camper, never mind living that way!
When I look at the world around me, I find there are so many things to be thankful for that I’ve taken for granted. I’m thankful for the level of medical care that is available in the United States. I realize that not all people have access to it, but that’s another article. I also find I’m thankful for things like toilet paper, toothpaste and over the counter medications.
No seriously, we had a missionary come to our church in Kentucky and he talked about helping a doctor in China. He told the story of a elderly woman who had heard the missionary and doctor was in the area. This woman walked for miles and miles to get a bottle of Aspirin for her extremely bad arthritis.
I try to remind myself of this when start complaining that the store I’m shopping at doesn’t have what I want right then. I remind myself it will probably be back on the shelf in a day or two or a week at most.
I encourage everyone to take time this Thanksgiving to be thankful. It’s important that we not only remember why the pilgrims were thankful, but why we are thankful today.
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