Hearty
We give hearty thanks for the rest of the past night
and for the gift of a new day,
with its opportunities of pleasing you.
Grant that we may so pass its hours
in the perfect freedom of your service,
that at eventide we may again
give thanks to you. Amen.
—from the Eastern Orthodox tradition,
#676 in our current United Methodist Hymnal
There’s a big holiday on the horizon.
Its name is one thing and its focus is often another.
Thanksgiving in our culture has become about travel, food, family and football.
Thanksgiving Services often include something along the lines of “It’s not about thanks-GIVING, it’s about thanks-LIVING.” It’s true.
A great way to rehearse that is with this prayer’s opening phrase: We give hearty thanks.
Let’s you and me give hearty thanks today.
As my congregations must get tired of hearing me say, There is so much to celebrate.
But there really is.
That’s why We give hearty thanks.
joescheets 
I use to go around the table laden with a cornucopia of food and ask each family member to name something they are thankful for. Since Tara was three and had memorized her thanksgiving grace at church school, she says grace and Amen seems to be the signal to eat and not speak. (She usually begins when I, the last person to do so, sit. I wouldn’t disturb her for the world, even though she is now eight, not three. I am/said I am thankful to have them all around the table. There may be more this year (Jeannie may join us with her family). Then the table will also burgeon with chairs and “closeness”.
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