Giving Thanks
Posted on: October 10, 2013
- In: Everyday Life | Faith | Family
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Count your blessings while you may
The big or small, whichever comes your way
– “Count Your Blessings” by Richard Morgan and Edith Temple
Last fall, I took a course on creating and maintaining a blog. After I shared my Thanksgiving dinner story with the other students, they encouraged me to use it for a post. Since we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend, I’d like to share some of that story here.
My parents were joining us for Thanksgiving dinner, and so I cooked a turkey raised by Dad. That turkey was Goliath: he tipped the scales at 24.5 lb.
The microwave was too cramped for Goliath and he went right into the roasting pan. Sort of. Goliath lay on his side in the pan, covered in tin foil so his skin wouldn’t crisp up too quickly.
Trying to turn Goliath was a Herculean task. I wished I had roasting forks as I heaved Goliath onto his other side while my husband gripped the pan to keep it from shooting onto the floor. After six hours, Goliath finally fit in the pan. After I’d snapped off one wing and tossed it into the drippings, that is.
At long last, the turkey was ready. I heaved Goliath onto the platter to serve…three people, since my father had the flu and my parents stayed home.
That was one big turkey. We were thankful for our dinner and for the many containers of leftovers we put in the freezer that night.
Thankful and grateful and are words we don’t hear often these days. But I think we could be inspired by Henry Smith’s praise song “Give Thanks” to have a more thankful attitude:
Give thanks with a grateful heart,
give thanks to the Holy One;
give thanks because he’s given Jesus Christ, his Son.
We can be thankful that we know about God’s love. That we have food, clothing and shelter. That we can spend Thanksgiving with our loved ones. And we can express our thanks by supporting our parish, donating to the food bank and outreach programs that help care for people in need, and welcoming extended family and friends into our homes for Thanksgiving dinner.
From the large (such as the ones I’ve mentioned) to the small (such as the fact that my husband fractured rather than broke his finger during his taekwon-do test), I pray that we would be grateful for the blessings in our lives and take time to count them and thank God for them.
A Catholic Convert in Ottawa 