Thankful, Grateful, Blessed.  These words are everywhere. Do we really believe in these words to live them out?  But do we truly understand their meaning? As Thanksgiving approaches, let us take a moment to reflect on the significance of these words.  

We are thankful, grateful, and blessed. If we truly believe these things, they should affect how we live our everyday lives. Moment by moment, with a heart filled with gratitude, knowing that we are truly blessed by God.

Many of us, like me, may have thought we understood what it meant to be thankful, grateful, and blessed, but the recent catastrophic hurricanes have given us a new perspective. The streets and roads are in chaos, with flooding and destruction everywhere. We are thankful that our towns weren’t hit as hard as the North Carolina mountains and Florida areas. We are grateful for each new day and feel blessed to have people in our lives that we can care for, clothe, hug, and teach about God.

We have prayed and asked God to bless those affected. They have been stripped away from everything they own, but we still see their laughter and their hope. “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.”  (Psalm 33:20) is a reminder of how blessed we are to have a Heavenly Father who can bring contentment and joy in these devastating situations. People are confronting the odds every single day. They are an inspiration of what it means to be thankful in all things.

We are thankful for a God who loves us, grateful for a Savior who died for us, and blessed beyond measure each day to have basic needs. Let us take Thankful, Grateful, Blessed to a deeper level.  Let us not make it our focus one day a year. But let us impact the people around us by living thankful, grateful, and blessed lives all year long.