WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR

[BaptistBibleBeliever]

A Nashville paper printed this announcement in the Special Notices section: "Thank you, Mom, for not having an abortion. I love you."

That small message put a new wrinkle in the abortion issue for readers. Some people are thankful when life-and-death social issues turn out right.

What are you thankful for?

The citizens of Enterprise, Alabama, are so thankful to a grey beetle that they built a statue on main street to honor it. The honored bug is nothing more than a common boll weevil.

Early in this century when King Cotton ruled the economic South, the boll weevil invaded Coffee County, Alabama, destroying crops and devastating farmers. Then someone suggested growing peanuts.

Farmers soon discovered that peanuts were more profitable, and the weevils didn't like them.

Today, Enterprise is the county seat in one of the world's primary peanut sources. That's why they are thankful for boll weevils. The weevils that brought economic disaster turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Do you honor the bugs in your life?

What are you thankful for?

It happened in 1928 in a one room schoolhouse in Kansas. The day before Thanksgiving a young teacher asked her 25 students what they were thankful for. She received 25 quite different responses. One little girl said she was thankful for her older sister who held her hand on the cold walk to and from school. Then she would change sides so the other hand could get warm.

When life gets cold, how comforting can be the presence of a friend's warm hand!

What are you thankful for?

[BaptistBibleBeliever]

Historians don't say much about it, but there were two Thanksgivings in 1621. The first one occurred, not in November, but on January 14 when men too sick to return to the Mayflower survived a fire in the common-house where they spent the night. The work party that rowed ashore at 6:00 a.m. found the survivors kneeling in the mud and rain, thanking God or saving their lives.

Before that bitter winter ended, tuberculosis killed 46 people. Only 56 lived till spring, and they were abandoned by the Mayflower's crew.

An Indian named Squanto showed the Puritans how to plant corn. They dug 100,000 holes, hauled 40 tons of fish for fertilizer, and watched the fields by night :o keep wolves away. That autumn Governor William Bradford proclaimed the first official Thanksgiving Day on American soil.

Our forefathers were thankful to pray in the mud and rain, thankful to haul fish for 100,000 holes in the ground.

What are you thankful for?

[BaptistBibleBeliever]

William Greathouse told about the lesson taught by a homeowner after a disastrous flood.

A Red Cross worker called at his house to inquire about losses the family had incurred. She saw mud-caked furniture and the waterline disfiguring the wallpaper, damaged floors, damaged appliances, damaged everything.

Before putting any estimate down in her notebook, she looked in the man's face. He was smiling.

"No loss here, Ma'am. We're all fine," he said.

"No loss?" the Red Cross worker asked.

"Ma'am, after the flood, we just got down on our knees and thanked the good Lord. You see, we can count all our children."

A father walked out of the flood thankful for his children, discounting material losses because some things matter more than furniture and appliances.

What are you thankful for?

On the other hand, multimillionaire Andrew Carnegie left $1 million to one of his relatives who, in return, cursed Carnegie thoroughly because he had left $365 million to public charities and had cut him off with just one measly million.

Even Shakespeare jabbed at ingratitude:

"I hate ingratitude more in man than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness or any trait of vice."

We've all heard about the visiting minister who waited while his hat was passed around a certain congregation to take a collection for him. It was returned without so much as one cent placed therein. Slowly and deliberately, the preacher turned the hat inside out and shook it meaningfully. Then raising up his eyes toward Heaven, he prayed, "I thank Thee, dear Lord, that I got my hat back from this congregation."

One of my favorite Bible passages concerns the tenth leper in Luke 17. True, the others' ingratitude prompted Jesus' penetrating questions: "Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?" However, that does not diminish the shining moment when the
tenth leper saw that he was healed "...turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks."

A thankful heart gives life a new perspective.

What are you thankful for?

— Contact, Nov., 1991

[Connie]

I am first and foremost thankful to our Saviour for saving my soul. For His death, burial and resurrection. Amazing!!!!!!

I am very thankful for my husband. He is God given to me and he walks his talk. He is the head of our home and keeps us from danger. He doesn't allow Satan in and for that I thank my husband very much. He has always been warm, caring and loving. He gives his love to our family without hesitation. He is my head and I love him dearly.

I am thankful for our wonderful son. I am thankful for the man he has become. I am thankful for his service to our great country. I am thankful to God for his salvation. I am thankful that Daniel lives his salvation.

I am thankful for my daughter-n-law. Daniel loves her so much, but we ask prayer for her salvation. They are unequally yoked and it is very hard. Please pray for Alison that she will accept Jesus as her Saviour. We love her so much.

I am thankful for our warm home. Thankful for the heater yes, but I am talking about the love that we share that warms our hearts.

I am thankful for a roof over my head, a clean and warm bed. I am thankful for so much food that I don't have places to put it. What a giving God we serve.

I am thankful for the wonderful smell of turkey coming from my kitchen.

I am thankful for this quiet time alone before everyone gets here (12 in all), so that I may reflect on my many, many blessings.

Thank You, Lord, for Your blessing on me.

[Kate]

   I have so much to be thankful for!!!  My husband is still cancer free, my children are healthy and their wives as well!  Although the world seems to be falling apart all around us, our hope is in Him!!!  Praise the Lord!!!