Gratitude Thanksgiving Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Gratitude Thanksgiving. Here they are! All 100 of them:

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Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.
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William Arthur Ward
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Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.
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W.T. Purkiser
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Eucharisteoβ€”thanksgivingβ€”always precedes the miracle.
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Ann Voskamp (One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are)
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Thankfulness creates gratitude which generates contentment that causes peace.
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Todd Stocker
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The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.
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Abraham H. Maslow
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A little "thank you" that you will say to someone for a "little favour" shown to you is a key to unlock the doors that hide unseen "greater favours". Learn to say "thank you" and why not?
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Israelmore Ayivor
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A sincere attitude of gratitude is a beatitude for secured altitudes. Appreciate what you have been given and you will be promoted higher.
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Israelmore Ayivor
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Those who are not grateful soon begin to complain of everything.
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Thomas Merton (Thoughts in Solitude)
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Is the height of my chara joy dependent on the depths of my eucharisteo thanks?
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Ann Voskamp (One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are)
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The value we place on what we've been given correlates to our depth of gratitude for it.
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Todd Stocker
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If I do not feel a sense of joy in God's creation, if I forget to offer the world back to God with thankfulness, I have advanced very little upon the Way. I have not yet learnt to be truly human. For it is only through thanksgiving that I can become myself.
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Kallistos Ware (The Orthodox Way)
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To become a better you, remember to be grateful to people who have contributed to making you who you are today.
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Israelmore Ayivor (Become a Better You)
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Every day, tell at least one person something you like, admire, or appreciate about them.
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Richard Carlson
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Superficial social niceties are far different from the deep emotion of thanksgiving.
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Alexandra Katehakis (Mirror of Intimacy: Daily Reflections on Emotional and Erotic Intelligence)
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The more we express thanks, the more gratitude we feel. The more gratitude we feel, the more we express thanks. It's circular, and it leads to a happier life.
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Steve Goodier
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Thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness in our pain is the indisputable proof that we believe God is a part of our pain.
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Erwin W. Lutzer (When You've Been Wronged: Moving From Bitterness to Forgiveness)
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Express gratitude for the greatness of small things.
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Richie Norton
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Thanksgiving creates abundance.
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Ann Voskamp
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Ingratitude to God does not rely only on our refusal to give the verbal thanksgiving due to Him, but also recides in our inability to appreciate his gifts and potentials in us by leaving them untapped.
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Israelmore Ayivor
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Be thankful for the beautiful moment. Be thankful for the gift of today. Be thankful for how far you have reached.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Thanksgiving comes to us out of the prehistoric dimness, universal to all ages and all faiths. At whatever straws we must grasp, there is always a time for gratitude and new beginnings.
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J. Robert Moskin
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Contempt is conceived with expectations. Respect is conceived with expressions of gratitude. We can choose which one we will obsess overβ€”expectations, or thanksgivings.
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Gary L. Thomas (Sacred Marriage: What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy?)
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Father God, we thank you for your grace and your mercy, for allowing us to be together under your covenant and God we thank you for the revelations and for the breakthroughs; for your direction and for your healing. We thank you God for the opportunity to just be a vessel for your kingdom. God we trust you, we love you, we honor you, and all glory is yours. Amen
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Germany Kent
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Infinite gratitude, infinite hope.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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An ancient cornerstone of prayer is that our desire to thank God is itself God's gift. Be grateful.
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Richard Leonard (Why Bother Praying?)
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My soul is exceedingly joyful.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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There are more glorious days ahead, this should be your joy for today.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Life is always beautiful when we focus on the greatness of our God.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Have the wisdom to perceive all there is to be thankful for, and then be thankful for the wisdom to perceive things so clearly.
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Richelle E. Goodrich (Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year)
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Gratitude, like faith, is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it grows, and the more power you have to use it on your behalf. If you do not practice gratefulness, its benefaction will go unnoticed, and your capacity to draw on its gifts will be diminished. To be grateful is to find blessings in everything. This is the most powerful attitude to adopt, for there are blessings in everything.
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Alan Cohen
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Live everyday like your birthday and drive your life with all varieties of appreciation. A life live with thanksgiving every day is never tired of being lived again and again!
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Israelmore Ayivor (Daily Drive 365)
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I celebrate life with holy thanks.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Thanksgiving is an attitude that must be rooted in the β€˜gift of life’ if we ever hope to be thankful for the β€˜gifts’ of life.
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Craig D. Lounsbrough (An Intimate Collision: Encounters with Life and Jesus)
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Life is a celebration. Consider everything that makes you happy as a gift from God and say, 'Thank you.
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Francis Lucille (The Perfume of Silence)
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Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.
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Henry Van Dyke
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God Almighty, I don’t want to ask for more. But to say more thanks.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Life is a celebration. Consider everything that makes you happy as a gift from God and say, 'Thank you.' Lucille, Francis. The Perfume of Silence . Unknown. Kindle Edition.
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Francis Lucille (The Perfume of Silence)
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Although Thanksgiving comes but once a year, every day should be a day of Thanks. Among all the challenges that we face as people with hearing loss there are certainly brighter moments in every day – moments that deserve to be recorded in our Gratitude Journal.
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Monique Hammond
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Always grateful, forever blessed.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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So thankful, forever blessed.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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All times are connected. Treasure each moment.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Live each day with thankful gratitude.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Wherever you are, you have to be joyfully alive.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Be grateful for who you are and what you will be.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Be thankful that you have clothes to wear, food to eat and a place to sleep.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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The joy of living is the gratitude of the moment.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Gratitude is what you feel. Thanksgiving is what you do.
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Timothy J. Keller
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Gratitude is the seed of gladness.
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Lailah Gifty Akita
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If you woke up this morning, you have reason to be grateful. If you lie your head on a pillow tonight, you have reason to give thanks. Don't take a single day for grated. They run out.
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Toni Sorenson
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A prayer that’s seeking passion should not be about manufacturing a better feeling or jostling up a better mood. It’s simply about holding out your open handsβ€”in thanksgiving first, in gratitude for God’s faithfulness and His goodness and His assured, accomplished victory over the enemy. Then asking. Asking for what He already wants to give you. Then waiting (expecting) to receive the promise of newness and freshness from His Spirit as you go along, more each dayβ€”praying until, as the prophet Hosea saidΒ .Β .Β . He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth. (Hos. 6:3)
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Priscilla Shirer (Fervent: A Woman's Battle Plan to Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer)
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Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord for the gift of life. Thank you Lord for divine protection. Thank you Lord for daily guidance.
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Lailah Gifty Akita
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My greatest privilege is being married to a gentle loving husband. I am very grateful God made our path cross.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Birthday, Birthday, Birthday! Celebrate your day of birth, no matter the circumstances of your birth. Be thankful and joyful for the gift of life on this divine day.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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May your hope keep you joyful.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Give thanks as if you are living just to appreciate life. Live as if your life depends on love, kindness, gratitude, and thanksgiving.
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Debasish Mridha
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Showing gratitude is one of the most powerful ways to create abundance. Giving thanks is one of the most beautiful ways to appreciate life.
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Debasish Mridha
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Let gratitude saturate your heart for every good thing, both great and small, and then endureβ€”oh, steadfastly endureβ€”all else that remains.
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Richelle E. Goodrich (Being Bold: Quotes, Poetry, & Motivations for Every Day of the Year)
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Gratitude is an amplifier of wealth.
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Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr. (The Wealth Reference Guide: An American Classic)
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Thanksgiving is not only being aware of the abundance of good in the world but embracing it.
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Richelle E. Goodrich (Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year)
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If people begin to be more grateful, they will see the wonders of life.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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What if we started counting our blessings rather than counting the days?
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Laura Thomas
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Heavenly Father, thank you for the blessing that you bestow upon me daily.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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I can only see life as this most miserable accident that I have been forced to endure simply because I refuse to see it as the most astounding plan that I have been privileged to engage.
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Craig D. Lounsbrough
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The word "Eucharist" means literally "act of thanksgiving." To celebrate the Eucharist and to live a Eucharistic life has everything to do with gratitude. Living Eucharistically is living life as a gift, a gift for which one is grateful. But gratitude is not the most obvious response to life, certainly not when we experience life as a series of losses! Still, the great mystery we celebrate in the Eucharist and live in a Eucharistic life is precisely that through mourning our losses we come to know life as a gift.
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Henri J.M. Nouwen (With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life)
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Contempt is conceived with expectations. Respect is conceived with expressions of gratitude. We can choose which one we will obsess over-expectations, or thanksgivings. That choice will result in a birth-and the child will be named either contempt, or respect.
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Gary L. Thomas (Sacred Marriage: What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy?)
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Do not say, 'But it is hypocritical to thank God with my tongue when I don't feel thankful in my heart.' There is such a thing as hypocritical thanksgiving. Its aim is to conceal ingratitude and get the praise of men. That is not your aim. Your aim in loosing your tongue with words of gratitude is that God would be merciful and fill your words with the emotion of true gratitude. You are not seeking the praise of men; you are seeing the mercy of God. You are not hiding the hardness of ingratitude, but hoping for the in-breaking of the Spirit. Thanksgiving with the Mouth Stirs Up Thankfulness in the Heart Moreover, we should probably ask the despairing saint, 'Do you know your heart so well that you are sure the words of thanks have no trace of gratitude in them?' I, for one, distrust my own assessment of my motives. I doubt that I know my good ones well enough to see all the traces of contamination. And I doubt that I know my bad ones well enough to see the traces of grace. Therefore, it is not folly for a Christian to assume that there is a residue of gratitude in his heart when he speaks and sings of God's goodness even though he feels little or nothing. To this should be added that experience shows that doing the right thing, in the way I have described, is often the way toward being in the right frame. Hence Baxter gives this wise counsel to the oppressed Christian: 'Resolve to spend most of your time in thanksgiving and praising God. If you cannot do it with the joy that you should, yet do it as you can. You have not the power of your comforts; but have you no power of your tongues? Say not that you are unfit for thanks and praises unless you have a praising heart and were the children of God; for every man, good and bad, is bound to praise God, and to be thankful for all that he hath received, and to do it as well as he can, rather than leave it undone.... Doing it as you can is the way to be able to do it better. Thanksgiving stirreth up thankfulness in the heart.
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John Piper (When the Darkness Will Not Lift: Doing What We Can While We Wait for Godβ€”And Joy)
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seesth thou a man tha isn't GRATEFUL? He is a GREAT FOOL
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Pastor Erukeoghene Taunu PET
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The Heavens declare the glory of God. Lord your unfailing love is as vast as the Heavens.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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All glory to Adonai! Great is thy love. Great is thy mercy. Great is thy faithfulness.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Family gathers to share good noise and good food. Gratitude abounds.
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Richelle E. Goodrich (Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year)
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The priceless gifts (life, love, joy, goodness, family, nature) are freely given by the Creator.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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You don’t need to have everything to be happy. Enjoy the moment.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Giving thanks, being appreciative, and expressing gratitude are the quickest way to abundance.
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Debasish Mridha
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Think always of thanks.
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Lailah Gifty Akita
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Don’t forget to thank God when you get what you prayed for
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Deeksha Arora
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To be thankful for one thing is infinitely more powerful than to be bitter about a hundred others.
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Craig D. Lounsbrough
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Only having valued a thing, can you truly be thankful. You can not be sincerely thankful for what you have not valued.
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TemitOpe Ibrahim
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Try to live one entire day in utter thanksgiving. Balance every complaint with ten gratitudes, every criticism with ten compliments.
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Richard J. Foster (Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home)
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Having gratitude for being alive, being able to experience an inner delight in the moment, is one of the essential roots of happiness.
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Ezra Bayda (Beyond Happiness: The Zen Way to True Contentment)
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To refuse to be thankful is to incessantly focus on the few things that I don’t have at the expense of the many things that I do.
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Craig D. Lounsbrough
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GRATITUDE changes ATTITUDE in an instant.
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Toni Sorenson
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To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.” Johannes A. Gaertner
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Daniella Whyte (365 Days of Thanking God: Cultivating a Heart of Thanksgiving Everyday (Revised & Expanded))
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So thankful, so grateful.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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I encourage you to examine your life, to pay attention to your thoughts and your words, and to see how much thanksgiving you express. Do you murmur and complain about things or are you thankful?
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Joyce Meyer (The Power of Being Thankful: 365 Devotions for Discovering the Strength of Gratitude)
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If you complain about the money or resources you lack, then you will lack more of it. However, if you are grateful for the money and resources you do have, however small or large it may be, you will gain more of it.
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Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr. (The Wealth Reference Guide: An American Classic)
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The person I'm most thankful for this Thanksgiving is Lieutenant Eve Dallas. She kept me safe when I was scared and I was sad. She took me to her house with Roarke and Summerset and Galahad so nobody could hurt me, not even the bad people who killed my family and my friend. She told me the truth. She promised me she would find the bad people and make sure they were punished. And Roarke said she would never stop until she did that. He told me the truth too. She helped me find Richard and Elizabeth and Kevin. They're not my mother, my father, and my brother. But they're my family now, and I know it's okay to love them. It doesn't mean I don't love my mom and dad and my brother. Dallas didn't treat me like a baby. She told me I was a survivor, and that's important. She worked hard, and she even got hurt, but she found the bad people, and she made sure they got punished. She told me the truth. She kept her promise. So she is the person I'm most thankful for this Thanksgiving. Nixie Swisher.
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J.D. Robb (Thankless in Death (In Death, #37))
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You can’t listen to the Thanksgiving Address without feeling wealthy. And, while expressing gratitude seems innocent enough, it is a revolutionary idea. In a consumer society, contentment is a radical proposition. Recognizing abundance rather than scarcity undermines an economy that thrives by creating unmet desires. Gratitude cultivates an ethic of fullness, but the economy needs emptiness. The Thanksgiving Address reminds you that you already have everything you need. Gratitude doesn’t send you out shopping to find satisfaction; it comes as a gift rather than a commodity, subverting the foundation of the whole economy. That’s good medicine for land and people alike.
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Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants)
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Oh what marvels fill me with thanksgiving! The deep mahogany of a leaf once green. The feathered fronds of tiny icicles coating every twig and branch in a wintry landscape. The feel of goosebumps thawing after endured frozen temperatures. Both hands clamped around a hot mug of herbal tea. The aromatic whiff of mint under my nose. The stir of emotion from a child's cry for mommy. A gift of love detached of strings. Spotted lilies collecting raindrops in a cupped clump of petals. The vibrant mΓ©lange of colors on butterfly wings. The milky luster of a single pearl. Rainbows reflecting off iridescence bubbles. Awe-struck silence evoked by any form of beauty. Avocado flecks in your eyes. Warm hands on my face. Sweetness on the tongue. The harmony of voices. An answered prayer. A pink balloon. A caress. A smile. More. These have become my treasures by virtue of thanksgiving.
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Richelle E. Goodrich (Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year)
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Gratitude is the recognition of all that holds us in the web of life and all that has made it possible to have the life that we have and the moment that we are experiencing. Thanksgiving is a natural response to life and may be the only way to savor it.
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Dalai Lama XIV (The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World)
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Summary of the Science of Getting Rich There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. Man can form things in his thought, and by impressing his thought upon formless substance can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. In order to do this, man must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; otherwise he cannot be in harmony with the Formless Intelligence, which is always creative and never competitive in spirit. Man may come into full harmony with the Formless Substance by entertaining a lively and sincere gratitude for the blessings it bestows upon him. Gratitude unifies the mind of man with the intelligence of Substance, so that man’s thoughts are received by the Formless. Man can remain upon the creative plane only by uniting himself with the Formless Intelligence through a deep and continuous feeling of gratitude. Man must form a clear and definite mental image of the things he wishes to have, to do, or to become; and he must hold this mental image in his thoughts, while being deeply grateful to the Supreme that all his desires are granted to him. The man who wishes to get rich must spend his leisure hours in contemplating his Vision, and in earnest thanksgiving that the reality is being given to him. Too much stress cannot be laid on the importance of frequent contemplation of the mental image, coupled with unwavering faith and devout gratitude. This is the process by which the impression is given to the Formless, and the creative forces set in motion. The creative energy works through the established channels of natural growth, and of the industrial and social order. All that is included in his mental image will surely be brought to the man who follows the instructions given above, and whose faith does not waver. What he wants will come to him through the ways of established trade and commerce. In order to receive his own when it shall come to him, man must be active; and this activity can only consist in more than filling his present place. He must keep in mind the Purpose to get rich through the realization of his mental image. And he must do, every day, all that can be done that day, taking care to do each act in a successful manner. He must give to every man a use value in excess of the cash value he receives, so that each transaction makes for more life; and he must so hold the Advancing Thought that the impression of increase will be communicated to all with whom he comes in contact. The men and women who practice the foregoing instructions will certainly get rich; and the riches they receive will be in exact proportion to the definiteness of their vision, the fixity of their purpose, the steadiness of their faith, and the depth of their gratitude.
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Wallace D. Wattles (The Science of Getting Rich)
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It starts with one thing. And when I find that β€˜one thing’ that I can be thankful for, others immediately rush to the forefront of my mind. And in but a few moments I am so inundated by all that I have to be thankful for that any sense that my life is impoverished itself becomes impoverished.
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Craig D. Lounsbrough
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Thanksgiving is oral, positive, active. It is the giving out of something to God. Thanksgiving comes out into the open. Gratitude is secret, silent, negative, passive, not showing its being till expressed in praise and thanksgiving. Gratitude is felt in the heart. Thanksgiving is the expression of that inward feeling.
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E.M. Bounds (The Complete Collection of E. M. Bounds on Prayer)
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Prayer is an essential part of conveying appreciation to our Heavenly Father. He awaits our expressions of gratefulness each morning and night in sincere, simple prayer from our hearts for our many blessings, gifts, and talents. Through expression of prayerful gratitude and thanksgiving, we show our dependence upon a higher source of wisdom and knowledgeβ€”God the Father and his Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are taught to β€˜live in thanksgiving daily.’ (Alma 34:38.)
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Robert D. Hales
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In a quest of looking at those who are running AHEAD OF US or TRAILING BEHIND US, we tend to overlook those who are running WITH US. In a race of life, some people will always be ahead of us and some will be behind us. Let’s not forget to ACKNOWLEDGE and APPRECIATE those who are supporting and caring for us while we are busy running.
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Sanjeev Himachali
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Right worship, the kind that is pleasing to God, acknowledges the grace that is in Jesus Christ not only with our lips but also with our lives. Christ’s own sacrifice makes possible the right kind of offering and proper worship: the sacrifice of the whole of our lives, a thanksgiving existence that proceeds from a mood of gratitude. Worship
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Kevin J. Vanhoozer (The Pastor as Public Theologian: Reclaiming a Lost Vision)
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To be able to enjoy fully the many good things the world has to offer, we must be detached from them. To be detached does not mean to be indifferent or uninterested. It means to be non-possessive. Life is a gift to be grateful for and not a property to cling to. A non-possessive life is a free life. But such freedom is only possible when we have a deep sense of belonging. To whom then do we belong? We belong to God, and the God to whom we belong has sent us into the world to proclaim in his Name that all of creation is created in and by love and calls us to gratitude and joy. That is what the 'detached' life is all about. It is a life in which we are free to offer praise and thanksgiving.
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Henri J.M. Nouwen (Bread for the Journey)
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The Onondaga Nation schools recite the Thanksgiving Address, a river of words as old as the people themselves, known in Onondaga language as the Words That Come Before All Else. This ancient order of protocol sets gratitude as the highest priority. The gratitude is directed straight to the ones who share their gifts with the world. (excerpt) β€˜Today we have gathered and when we look upon the faces around us we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now let us bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People. Now our minds are one. We are thankful to our Mother the Earth, for she gives us everything that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she still continues to care for us, just as she has from the beginning of time. To our Mother, we send thanksgiving, love, and respect. Now our minds are one. We give thanks to all of the waters of the world for quenching our thirst, for providing strength and nurturing life for all beings. We know its power in many formsβ€”waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers and oceans, snow and ice. We are grateful that the waters are still here and meeting their responsibility to the rest of Creation. Can we agree that water is important to our lives and bring our minds together as one to send greetings and thanks to the Water? Now our minds are one. Standing around us we see all the Trees. The Earth has many families of Trees who each have their own instructions and uses. Some provide shelter and shade, others fruit and beauty and many useful gifts. The Maple is the leader of the trees, to recognize its gift of sugar when the People need it most. Many peoples of the world recognize a Tree as a symbol of peace and strength. With one mind we greet and thank the Tree life. Now our minds are one.
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Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants)
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Ultimately, the roast turkey must be regarded as a monument to Boomer's love. Look at it now, plump and glossy, floating across Idaho as if it were a mammoth, mutated seed pod. Hear how it backfires as it passes the silver mines, perhaps in tribute to the origin of the knives and forks of splendid sterling that a roast turkey and a roast turkey alone possesses the charisma to draw forth into festivity from dark cupboards. See how it glides through the potato fields, familiarly at home among potatoes but with an air of expectation, as if waiting for the flood of gravy. The roast turkey carries with it, in its chubby hold, a sizable portion of our primitive and pagan luggage. Primitive and pagan? Us? We of the laser, we of the microchip, we of the Union Theological Seminary and Time magazine? Of course. At least twice a year, do not millions upon millions of us cybernetic Christians and fax machine Jews participate in a ritual, a highly stylized ceremony that takes place around a large dead bird? And is not this animal sacrificed, as in days of yore, to catch the attention of a divine spirit, to show gratitude for blessings bestowed, and to petition for blessings coveted? The turkey, slain, slowly cooked over our gas or electric fires, is the central figure at our holy feast. It is the totem animal that brings our tribe together. And because it is an awkward, intractable creature, the serving of it establishes and reinforces the tribal hierarchy. There are but two legs, two wings, a certain amount of white meat, a given quantity of dark. Who gets which piece; who, in fact, slices the bird and distributes its limbs and organs, underscores quite emphatically the rank of each member in the gathering. Consider that the legs of this bird are called 'drumsticks,' after the ritual objects employed to extract the music from the most aboriginal and sacred of instruments. Our ancestors, kept their drums in public, but the sticks, being more actively magical, usually were stored in places known only to the shaman, the medicine man, the high priest, of the Wise Old Woman. The wing of the fowl gives symbolic flight to the soul, but with the drumstick is evoked the best of the pulse of the heart of the universe. Few of us nowadays participate in the actual hunting and killing of the turkey, but almost all of us watch, frequently with deep emotion, the reenactment of those events. We watch it on TV sets immediately before the communal meal. For what are footballs if not metaphorical turkeys, flying up and down a meadow? And what is a touchdown if not a kill, achieved by one or the other of two opposing tribes? To our applause, great young hungers from Alabama or Notre Dame slay the bird. Then, the Wise Old Woman, in the guise of Grandma, calls us to the table, where we, pretending to be no longer primitive, systematically rip the bird asunder. Was Boomer Petaway aware of the totemic implications when, to impress his beloved, he fabricated an outsize Thanksgiving centerpiece? No, not consciously. If and when the last veil dropped, he might comprehend what he had wrought. For the present, however, he was as ignorant as Can o' Beans, Spoon, and Dirty Sock were, before Painted Stick and Conch Shell drew their attention to similar affairs. Nevertheless, it was Boomer who piloted the gobble-stilled butterball across Idaho, who negotiated it through the natural carving knives of the Sawtooth Mountains, who once or twice parked it in wilderness rest stops, causing adjacent flora to assume the appearance of parsley.
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Tom Robbins (Skinny Legs and All)
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Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisyβ€”a thin veil to cover up crimes that would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour forth a stream, a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and the crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.
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Frederick Douglass (Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings)
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On Thanksgiving Day, 2011, my pastor Peter Jonker preached a marvelous sermon on Psalm 65 with an introduction from the life of Seth MacFarlane, who had been on NPR’s Fresh Air program with Terry Gross. MacFarlane is a cartoonist and comedian. He’s the creator of the animated comedy show β€œThe Family Guy,” which my pastor called β€œarguably the most cynical show on television.” Terry Gross asked MacFarlane about 9/11. It seems that on that day of national tragedy MacFarlane had been booked on American Airlines Flight 11, Boston to LA, but he had arrived late at Logan airport and missed it. As we know, hijackers flew Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. My preacher said, β€œMacFarlane should have been on that plane. He should have been dead at 29 years of age. But somehow, at the end of that terrible day, he found himself healthy and alive, still able to turn his face toward the sun.” Terry Gross asked the inevitable question: β€œAfter that narrow escape, do you think of the rest of your life as a gift?” β€œNo,” said MacFarlane. β€œThat experience didn’t change me at all. It made no difference in the way I live my life. It made no difference in the way I look at things. It was just a coincidence.” And my preacher commented that MacFarlane had created β€œa missile defense system” against the threat of incoming gratitude β€” which might have lodged in his soul and changed him forever. MacFarlane, β€œthe Grinch who stole gratitude,” perfectly set up what Peter Jonker had to say to us about how it is right and proper for us to give thanks to God at all times and in all places, and especially when our life has been spared.
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Cornelius Plantinga Jr. (Reading for Preaching: The Preacher in Conversation with Storytellers, Biographers, Poets, and Journalists)