ON BEING THANKFUL FOR BLESSINGS LARGE AND SMALL

I just saw an article on the home where John and Jacqueline Kennedy spent part of their honeymoon.  The house is now for lease at $600,000 per month – or, for the big spenders, for sale at $115 million in case you are interested and happen to have an extra few million you don't know what to do with. The 50,000-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion includes 29 bedrooms, 40 bathrooms, two guest houses and a separate apartment.  As I was reading about the house,  I was giving thanks that I didn't have to clean all those bathrooms.  Or can you imagine having to vacuum all those bedrooms.  And how about all the other rooms.  The dusting and the mopping and the waxing.  Do you realize how big 50,000 square feet is?  That's bigger than a football field.  So on this day,  I am thankful I don't live in this house. 

So often we wish for bigger things.  A bigger house or a bigger car.  A bigger  paycheck and a bigger bank account or a bigger shop in our bigger back yard.  We are always searching for the bigger or the best  or the most powerful.  As I was thinking about all this I began to wonder why?  Why do we always want something bigger?  When Peggy and I got married she still lived in the same house she lived in when she was born.  Her father had bought that house when he got out of the army after WW II.
He told me he paid $1800.00 for the house and his payments were $13.00 a month.  He often talked about lying awake at night wondering how in the world he would ever pay for that house.  He was afraid he had bought more house than he could ever pay for.  My father-in-law was a very successful man.  He started his steel company in his back yard and when he sold it and retired at 53 years old he employed around 70 people and his shop must have been around 70 feet X 175 feet.  At that time he still lived in the same house.  I once asked him why didn't he buy a bigger house.  He said he had thought about it,  but as he was pondering what to do he asked himself what he would want in his dream house.  He said he would want a house that would keep him warm in the winter.  A house that would keep him cool in the summer.  A house that would keep him dry when it rained and a house that wouldn't rule his life by keeping him deep in debt.  He said the more he thought about it the more he realized he had everything he wanted in his dream house in that little house in Socktown, so why would he want to move.  Once again as I was thinking about all this another thing my father-in-law would often say popped into my mind.  Someone once asked him why he always wore overalls.  Didn't he think people would be more impressed if he wore different clothes to work.  His response was that there was no one that he needed to impress.

I've said all of this to explain my thoughts as we come to this,  my 66th Thanksgiving.
I've learned that bigger is not always better and I'm thankful for this knowledge.  I've learned that there is nothing on this earth more important than family.  I've learned that no matter how big my house is,  how pretty my car is,  how much money I have or don't have,  I am loved by my family and for this I am thankful.  As I look back over my life I am thankful for things I seldom think about.  I am thankful my Dad taught me how to bait a fish hook and to take the fish off when I was lucky enough to catch one.  I'm thankful that he also taught me how to shake hands with another man and also with a lady.  I'm thankful that he also taught me that there are some words you don't say in the presence of a lady.  He explained there was no reason that you didn't say these words,  you just didn't.  I'm thankful my dad wasn't ashamed or embarrassed to tell me he loved me in front of others.  I'm thankful my Mom was always there when I got home from school.  I'm thankful she always had a meal on the table to eat and that she taught me to always tell the cook I enjoyed what I had just eaten.  I am thankful that at a young age I was taught to say please and thank you,  excuse me and yes sir and yes ma'am and no sir and no ma'am.  I am also thankful that neither of my parents ever told me I couldn't accomplish anything but were always there to encourage and support me.

I am thankful that I have a wonderful loving wife that has been and continues to be the backbone of our family.  I am thankful that she is a great cook and not just on thanksgiving but everyday.  I am thankful for the three children she has raised with me, as she has done a great job.  I could have never done it without her.  I am thankful when I write a blog and she always tells me how good it is when I know it wasn't one of my best.  I am thankful when the phone rings and the caller ID says it's one of my children and not a salesperson.  I am thankful that my children live close by.  I am thankful when I feel the arms of my grandchildren wrap around my neck and I hear a little voice say..."I love you PaPa."

I am thankful when I walk out in the back yard each morning and my chickens come running toward me.  I am thankful when I open the cupboard and see fruit jars filled with the bounty from last years garden.  I am thankful for new buds on the trees and the first flowers of spring.  For the smell of a spring rain and the fragrance of a freshly mowed lawn.  I'm thankful for the song of the birds and the playfulness of the squirrels as they dance from tree to tree.  I'm thankful for the beautiful web of a writing spider and the wonderful masterpiece that God paints in the sky each day.

I am thankful that in the last few years I have found that I love to write and I am thankful that each day when I read the Atlanta Journal, that I find their writers and proof readers spell worse and know less about punctuation than I do so I don't feel so bad about those shortcomings..  I am thankful for the teachers that taught me to read and write.  For the ones that worked so hard to make sure I learned  things that I had no interest in learning because they knew that later in life I would be glad they had beaten these things into my hard head.  I am thankful for the coaches I had that taught me about winning with humbleness and losing with dignity.  About goals and character.  about pride and determination.  I am thankful for the friends I had years ago.  The ones that along with me didn't let school get in the way of our education.  Also the ones that kept a safe distance from me and my crew but kept us close enough that now,  in our later years we are closer that back then.

I am of course thankful for my God and my Savior.  I am thankful that I now have a better understanding from where all blessing flow.  I am thankful that although I still make mistakes, He is quick to forgive me.  I am thankful that He does provide my daily bread and that in time of need He comforts me.

I could go on and on.  I could write page after page and still I would leave someone or something out for which I am thankful .  For you see,  today I am thankful for the good times and the bad.  For the bountiful times and the times of drought.  For good friends and yes...even for my enemies.  I am thankful because these things and these people are what and who my God has used to create me.  And He is not through.  I am still a work in progress.  Makes no difference if I have known you for 65 years or 1 month,  God is using you in my life.  He is using you to make me a finished product.  And you know what?  He is using me to help complete you.  What a wonder God is.  So you see,  I don't need the football size house in Beverly Hills.  I don't need the big car and the giant bank account.  I am rich beyond measure.  For as the old song says:

He owns the cattle on a thousand hills,
The wealth in every mine;
He owns the rivers and the rocks and rills,
The sun and stars that shine.
Wonderful riches, more than tongue can tell -
He is my Father so they're mine as well;
He owns the cattle on a thousand hills -
I know that He will care for me.

Yes my friend  I am a rich.  I have no need to impress any man.  And for this....I am very thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving,  God bless you and your family and as Mama would say,  "Don't forget to say thank you."