Show a little attitude of gratitude this holiday, and all year

The following proclamation was made by Gov. Bradford in 1623, three years after the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth:

"To all ye Pilgrims, Inasmuch as the great father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, squashes and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the raids of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Plymouth rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings."

This Thursday is Thanksgiving. One day in which we, like those early Pilgrims, set aside time in our busy schedules to give thanks to God. Now, there is nothing wrong with that but the word of God tells us that thankfulness should be a continual, daily, attitude.

Eph. 5:19,20 tells Christians to "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

And I Thes. 5:16-18 says, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Paul's main subject here is praise, thanksgiving. Notice the other important words in these passages; always, continually and in all circumstances. It sounds as if Paul is talking about a church service here, especially in Ephesians, "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart. . ." But he isn't. He is talking about a continual attitude for Christians -- an attitude of the heart. You may wonder, can we have this attitude continually, especially "in all circumstances?" The answer lies in our perspective of thanksgiving. We need the proper perspective.

One young lady wrote home from college:

"Dear Mom: Sorry I haven't written sooner. My arm has been broken. I broke it, and my left leg, when I jumped from the second floor of my dormitory. . . when we had the fire. We were lucky. A young service station attendant saw the blaze and called the fire department. They were there in minutes. I was in the hospital for a few days. Paul, the service station attendant, came to see me every day. And because it was taking so long to get our dormitory livable again, I moved in with him. He has been so nice. I must admit that I am pregnant. Paul and I plan to get married just as soon as he can get a divorce. I hope things are fine at home. I'm doing fine, and will write more when I get the chance. Love, your daughter, Susie.

P.S. None of the above is true. But I did get a "C" in sociology and flunked chemistry. I just wanted you to receive this news in its "proper perspective!"

One of my favorite sayings I picked up from my father as a child. When times seemed hard he would say with a smile, "Things are never so bad they cannot be worse." So often we forget how good we have it and how blessed we really are.

In Luke 17:11-19, Jesus heals 10 men with a disease called leprosy. Leprosy was a dreaded infliction that would literally rot body parts from its host. If you had the disease, you became a social outcast and were reduced to begging. Jesus saw the men, had compassion on them and healed them. Only one returned to thank him. A great question to ask ourselves is, "Would I have returned, and what happened to the other nine?"

Have you ever wondered why only one healed leper returned to thank Jesus? We'll never really know . . . but here are nine suggested reasons why the other nine did not return:

Maybe one waited to see if the cure was real.

Maybe one waited to see if it would last.

Maybe one said he would go see Jesus later.

Maybe one decided that he had never had leprosy in the first place.

Maybe one said he would have gotten well anyway.

Maybe one gave the glory to the priests.

Maybe one said, "Jesus didn't really do anything. All He did was tell me to go . . ."

Maybe one said, "Any rabbi could have done that."

Maybe one said, "I was already getting better anyway."

We can be so full of excuses as to why we are not thankful. We need to have the attitude of gratitude continually. We need to realize that we have been blessed, no matter what our circumstances are. It could be worse, and we need to be thankful for what we do have. This Thanksgiving, take on the attitude of gratitude and keep things in perspective.

Bryce Ray is the pastor at Glacier View Alliance Church.