When we give thanks, we do so in the past tense. This is especially true during the Holiday Season when we give thanks for the many blessings that are bestowed upon us. We express gratitude to spiritual entities or thank our lucky stars for our good fortune. Time and again, however, we offer praise for our good health, wealth, and wisdom: our spouse, a job, a lucky lottery ticket, or an adventure experienced as we realize that from it all, we have been made more robust, better, and wiser. We often exclaim, “I’m so thankful for...” With a renewed appreciation, we thank all we have for who we are and what we’ve endured.
Nevertheless, we learn valuable lessons even though we continue to make mistakes. After reflection and careful consideration, we base resolutions on the hope that we can prosper. We think ahead fantastically as everything is made better in our mind’s eye. We often see ourselves bigger, stronger, thinner, and taller, with thicker hair, without bodily imperfections, younger, bolder, emboldened, and blessed with celebrity. As we long for instant change yet forgo machinations, repetitions, and redundancy, the journey along life’s path would better serve us if we could travel by warp speed to our private paradise. We give thanks for what is, but we are thankful for what was rather than what can be. We spend considerable time looking toward the future, yet we think of others who foretell it as tricksters and showmen; paying attention and money to those who portend to tell our future, we seldom believe in ourselves as the master of our destinies. Whether you believe in divine intervention or the fickleness of fate, life does not permit us to sit ideally by waiting on either bounty or recompense. We’ve been blessed with unprecedented opportunity. As we reach forward for the reward of that enviable golden nugget, we must first pull ourselves up by the bootstrap. And that’s life; be thankful for it! In all you do, give thanks unto the Lord for all you are and all you can do for those who need and yes, all you can do for others.