Thanksgiving Leftovers

By David Bragg

    What do you do after the turkey is unstuffed and you are stuffed? What do you do after the parades and bowl games have ended and your guests have left for home? The internet is filled with inventive recipes for dealing with the remains of your Thanksgiving meal, from Turkey Pumpkin Chili to Cranberry Turnovers to Sweet Potato Waffles. In the wake of our annual Thanksgiving holiday the question of what to do with those leftovers should be the least of our concerns. Come Monday morning we will enter a world that is convinced that they have sufficiently paid all obligations to be thankful until Thursday, November 28, 2019.
    But we know that God commands us to be thankful every day. The apostle Paul wrote: "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). This year, as we look back on the Thanksgiving holiday, what should be the real Thanksgiving Leftovers? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Thank God for our family and friends. Don’t take them for granted but rather cultivate those precious relationships year round
2. Thank God for His abundant blessings. The very fact that there are Thanksgiving leftovers proves that we are truly blessed.
3. Thank God for His church. This is our spiritual family. We ought to take advantage of these precious relationships of people who care.
4. Thank God for His Son. He gave everything so that you can enjoy all blessings through Him.
5. Thank God for the Bible. It gives us wisdom and direction for how to live a life that pleases Him.
6. Thank God for today and, should it come, tomorrow.

- David Bragg serves as one of the ministers at the Northwest Church of Christ in Greensboro, NC and is co-editor of BulletinGold. He may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://www.nwchurchofchrist.com/ or his blog: http://davidbragg.blogspot.com/