Thanksgiving, what a wonderful time to count your blessings.

Home, shelter, family, friends, church, food, water, sunshine and rain are all blessings from God. Even our failures, illnesses and pain are blessings if we put them into God’s purpose and plan.

They help us learn from our mistakes, know the difference between good times and bad and we can thank God for knowing the difference. Life is not always the bed of roses we may have hoped for but it is still life and we should still be thankful.

As situations and circumstances continue to change around us, God remains the same. He still cares and he still wants what is best for us.

We are the ones always getting off on the wrong track. We take the wrong turn and then try to blame God. We blame God for our circumstances.

We get illnesses that set us back and we try to blame God for that. The older we get, the more we realize how short life really is. We will all eventually deal with something that will take our physical life.

Sometimes my wife and I talk about all the things we eat and do that are bad for our health. After a while I say, “You know, this living is killing us.”

And sooner or later we all will face that reality. This wonderful life we have been given will some day be returned to God. Instead of complaining about our life and its eventual end shouldn’t we simply be thankful for the journey and for life itself?

As Christians, we all know where we are going, we have won the victory and there is only one way to get there. We should not waste one precious moment or begrudge the path before us.

Instead of worrying about the end, shouldn’t we live for today with an attitude of gratitude and get up with the joy of each morning and rejoice in the experiences of each day?

Thanksgiving is a condition of the heart where we choose to be thankful for this very moment and live life to its fullest and to the glory of God from whom all blessings flow.

Thanksgiving. A time to look around you and see what God has done to help make your life sweeter that the day before.

Thank you Lord for your blessings on me. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Rev. Dale LITTLE is Associational Missions Director of the Adams & Union Baptist Associations.