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I
can't believe that it is November once again...Somehow, Thanksgiving always
"sneaks" up on me when I'm not ready for it! When did fall arrive?
I'm still trying to decide what my Halloween costume will be this year!
Now it's time to stuff myself once again in an orgy of food and fellowship.
Maybe my surprise says something about the condition of my soul. My life is full of so many things for which I am thankful, yet I often forget to express my gratitude. Let's face it. Thanksgiving can be lost in the mad dash to live through all the festivities of Christmas and is just one more big meal we have to prepare.
I don't know about you, but I need an “attitude adjustment” and a better way to view my life and my faith. How can we learn to live a life of Thanksgiving, constantly aware of God's many blessings to us? God's love and grace surrounds us constantly. Somehow we are too insensitive and too busy to receive it and celebrate it.
Take time to slow down and appreciate God's love and grace in your life and be thankful.
“Timmy was a little five year old boy that his Mom loved very much and, being a worrier, she was concerned about him walking to school when he started Kindergarten. She walked him to school the first couple of days, but when he came home he told his mother that he did not want her walking him to school every day. He wanted to be like the “big boys”. He protested loudly, so she had an idea of how to handle it.
She asked a neighbor, Mrs. Goodnest, if she would surreptitiously follow her son to school, at a distance behind him that he would not likely notice, but close enough to keep a watch on him. Mrs. Goodnest said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be a good way for them to get some exercise as well, so she agreed.
The next school day, Mrs. Goodnest and her little girl, Marcy, set out following behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighbor boy he knew. She did this for a whole week.
As the boys walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, the little friend of Timmy noticed that this same lady was following them as she seemed to do every day all week. Finally, he said to Timmy,. “Have you noticed that lady following us all week? Do you know her?”
Timmy nonchalantly replied, “Yea, I know who she is.”
The little friend said, “Well who is she?”
“That's just Shirley Goodnest” Timmy said.
“Shirley Goodnest? Who the heck is she and why us she following us?”
“Well...” explained Timmy, “every night my Mom makes me say the 23rd psalm with my prayers cuz she worries about me so much. And in it, the prayer psalm says, “Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life, so I guess I'll just have to get used to it.”
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow all of use all the days of our lives and hopefully we won't get so “used to it” that we forget to be thankful. Happy Thanksgiving!
There will always be something new to experience when we constantly reevaluate, search anew, welcome new members, grow and redefine who we are as a church!
Thanks be to God! 
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Lynnewood United Methodist Church
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