A fascinating study done by Professor Vicki Medvec reveals the relative importance of subjective attitudes over and above objective circumstances. Medvec ...

I worked as a registered nurse for about ten years before my life took a different direction. One of my earliest patients was a young girl of about 14 ...

Writer Virginia Stem Owens describes a Thanksgiving dinner she shared with her parents in a nursing home:

… The tables have been rearranged, end-to-end ...

The pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts…nevertheless, [they] set aside a day of thanksgiving.

— H. W. Westermeyer

Reprinted from ...

Apollo 11 landed on the surface of the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Most of us are familiar with astronaut Neil Armstrong's historic statement as he ...

When we started the PCA (Presbyterian Church in American) in 1973, we had no money—not a dime—and we were going to start a new denomination. ...

I believe that the real difference in the American church is not between conservatives and liberals, fundamentalists and charismatics, nor between Republicans ...

In the Broadway play My Fair Lady, Eliza is courted by a man named Freddy. Freddy writes her love letters every day. But Eliza's response to all of these ...

Roy Larson thought the most difficult part of his day would be maneuvering the unfamiliar stick shift on a "loaner" electric wheelchair as he ventured ...

The essence of sin is misguided gratitude, not ingratitude. As dependent creatures we all, by nature, thank somebody or something (usually ourselves!) ...

While I was attending graduate school in the early 1980s, I stopped for coffee in a Malibu, California, restaurant. Coming from a non-political family, ...

Late night TV host Conan O'Brien, on his first night back on the air (9-18-01) after the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings, said:

I don't ...

Retired U.S. Marine Corps General Charles Krulak tells of the time when he as a nonbeliever was first confronted with the testimony of a person committed ...

In The Sacred Journey, Frederick Buechner writes:

"[One] winter I sat in Army fatigues somewhere near Anniston, Alabama, eating my supper out of a mess ...

Pat Bailey shares the following thoughts about the contribution of each part of the meal in a traditional Thanksgiving feast:

The wheat gave its best as ...

The author Fleming Rutledge writes:

The life of thankfulness—biblically speaking—is lived in view of the hard things of existence. As the life ...

In the classic western movie Shenandoah, Jimmy Stewart stars as Charlie Anderson, a Virginian farmer trying to keep his family out of the Civil War.

With ...

A South African man surprised nine men robbing his home. Eight of the robbers ran away, but the homeowner managed to shove one into his backyard pool. ...

Gary Carter was accepted into Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, on July 27, 2003. In his acceptance speech, Carter said:

I ...

Gratitude is an offering precious in the sight of God, and it is one that the poorest of us can make and be not poorer but richer for having made it.

Text: Psalm 118
Topic: The greatness of God's love

I want you to imagine a special, highly festive event. Psalm 118 was written for such an occasion. It began with a blare of trumpets, the sound of cymbals, and the choir of Israel literally ...

Text: Luke 17:11–19
Topic: The importance of thankfulness

We often look at thanksgiving backwards. We think of thanksgiving as thanking God for something that has happened to us already. The real purpose of giving thanks, though, is opening ...

Thankfulness is difficult for most of us. An elementary school teacher was trying to teach thankfulness to her students, so she asked them to write down all the things they could think of that they were thankful for. She walked up and down the aisles ...

Introduction:

My wife and I watched a sitcom the other evening, where the plot revolved around the old standby device called “the flashback.” The show’s characters sat around after Thanksgiving dinner and reminisced about Thanksgivings past. That got ...

Introduction:

The first Thanksgiving dinner I ever ate outside of the United States was in Belgium. The people of Belgium are as thankful as any other people, but they do not observe the fourth Thursday in November as a holiday. I think it came as a bit ...

Text: Luke 17:11–17
Topic: The importance of being thankful

Not long ago, as I was talking with one of my teenage sons, he recounted an experience he had on a commuter train outside of New York City. It seems he was surrounded by middle-aged, ...

In a yard near us, a sign recently appeared with these words on it: MOM ON STRIKE. Michelle had "moved" into her children's tree house and vowed she wasn't coming down until a few things changed. A local television station saw the sign and ran a story ...

Introduction

It seems to me that appreciation is often related to contrasts. We are told the beauty of art is not just in color, but it's in contrast. That's part of what makes art beautiful. 

Have you ever noticed that often you don't appreciate something ...