Thanksgiving.

I wonder what might happen if I spent as much time preparing my heart for the Thanksgiving dinner as I do preparing the dinner. Even as someone who is okay with the cranberry sauce coming from a jar, I spend more time and energy on preparing the meal than I do considering the measure of gratitude in my heart.

Perhaps this year if I surf the web, I will look for recipes on increasing gratitude as opposed to pumpkin pie. Anyone can follow directions and put together a pie, manufacturing gratitude is not so easy. Or is it?

I like my house, except for those curtains that need to be replaced. I am thankful for my health, except for my bad knee. I am grateful to live in a free country, though they sure do tax things around here. There is some thankfulness in my heart, the problem is, there is greediness too.

When selfishness, greed, unforgiveness and the like take up residence in your heart, you lose a measure of thankfulness. Thankfulness does not keep company with these types of things, so when they move in, they kick some thankfulness out. They whisper lies as thankfulness leaves - “Perhaps if I get what I want, if things go my way, then you can return.” The truth is, to obtain a fuller measure of thankfulness, I need to get rid of the bad company that Thankfulness refuses to keep.

Perhaps this Thanksgiving would be a good time to consider not what you will put on the table, but what you let dwell in your heart. It just might add welcome flavor to the meal.

P.S. I know gratitude does not come in a can, but here is a little "food" for thought as you prepare your heart :) Giving Thanks, In America.