My mother -- We haven't always seen eye to eye on matters of faith, but when I see the number of people my age who aren't sure if there is a God, or if it really matters, I am grateful that she made sure I got to church. When the day came for me to commit my life to Christ, the foundation was already in place. 

My father -- Life in the Air Force may have kept hhim apart from me during much of my growing up, but I never went hungry. I never lacked for clothes. I never slept without a roof over my head. He always provided, and when he wasn't albe to be there, I could still take pride in him because he was nobly serving his country. 

Sheree Campbell -- She taught Home Ec at my high school, so I didn't have her for class. However, she did supervise the lunchroom during my lunch hour. That was where I could talk to her about being depressed, and she could tell me about needing Jesus Christ in my life. She was the one who ultimately led me to make that commitment, which has kept me going when times were difficult and gave me direction when times were good. 

Claire Fredstrom -- He was the financial aid administrator at my college, but the aid he gave me was far more than financial. I may have been intellectually ready for college, but socially, I wasn't even close. Without the time he spent just talking to me and teaching me things about life, I never would have made it to graduation. 

Elmer Meiler and Father John Sullivan -- The number of hours these two men invested in my life to help me grow in my faith must be in the hundreds, at the very least. First Elmer, and then Father Sullivan, made themselves available to me, despite the many other demands upon their time, when I needed someone to talk to, and to pray with, and to help me see how to live out my faith. 

Finally, my wife Linda, for whom I am grateful, by whom I am blessed, to whom I have given my heart, and without whom, I would never move beyond where I was to where I am, much less forward from here to where I will be. 

God has blessed me with much. Not only has He placed these people (and many others) in my life, but He also has drawn me to Himself, and in spite of my many failings, He has never given up on me. May He bless each of you as He has blessed me, and may you have a rich and meaningful Thanksgiving. 

Brad Pardee
Editor

That's not quite the story your history teacher told, is it? I wonder, then, why it is that this is the way we celebrate it. Could it be that we have lost our understanding of what it really means to be thankful? Possibly. 

We live in a culture where immediate gratification is the rule, and "gimme gimme gimme" is the watchword of the day. No matter what we have, we want more. No matter how quickly we get it, we wanted it yesterday. Our attention is focused so much on what we want or what we don't have that we never stop to be grateful for what we do have. 

We live in a culture where we will give a quick "Thanks", to the person that holds the door for us, but if they don't, we'll mutter under our breath about how rude they are. We believe we are owed most things that we want, so instead of "thank you", our internal response is more likely to be, "It's about time I got what I deserved to begin with." 

We live in a culture where we do things for each other because either we expect to get something out of it or we are afraid of what might happen if we don't. Anyone who has a genuine servant's heart is viewed as gullible, naive, and a target to be taken advantage of. Think about what someone means when they describe somebody by saying, "Oh, he's such a boy scout!" Generally speaking, it means they are honest, hard-working, and willing to help out, but those are seen as negative traits, or at the very least, traits we laugh at. Consequently, when somebody does something for us, either we figure they're in it for themselves or they're stupid, neither of which causes us to be grateful. 

Finally, and on a more basic level, we live in a culture where we take such pride in all we do and all we have that we leave God out of the equation altogether, so that the notion of being grateful never occurs to us. Do we have a good house? It's not because God has blessed us but because we worked hard for it. Do we have a good mate? It's not because God blessed us but because we're so attractive or we "won" the contest for their affections. 

I'm not suggesting that parades, dinners, football, or Christmas preparations shouldn't be a part of our Thanksgiving celebration. I am suggesting, though, that if that's as far as it goes, with maybe a few insincere platitudes about what we are thankful for, then we are missing the point. It ought to be a time when we look past what we wish we had and what we think we deserve, and we take time to remember and appreciate all things we have received. It ought to be a time when we stop questioning the motives of those who serve us and we simply appreciate what they do, regardless of why they are doing it. It ought to be a time when we remember that, regardless of our efforts, there are many who work just as hard, but without the same success. It ought to be a time when we remember that the abilities and attributes we have drawn upon could only be developed by us if God placed them within us in the first place. 

Maybe then we will have a Thanksgiving that goes beyond a Frank Capra film and genuinely changes the way we see our lives and those around us, both on this one day and throughout the rest of the year.