Doesn't everybody have something to be thankful for?

The writer is the 14-year-old daughter of Dixon and Linda Cartwright of Big Sandy. Miss Cartwright writes about Thanksgiving Day, which Americans observed this year on Nov. 27.

By Jamie Cartwright

BIG SANDY, Texas - So Thanksgiving has come and gone, loaded with turkey, family and long car rides out to the country. So just what do we, as God's people, have to be thankful for?

Of course there are millions of material possessions: a home, a car, a dog and other such things that really are nice to have around.

But what I'm talking about goes a little deeper than that.

For example, we have God's protection. Without it who knows how many of us would be dead right now or seriously depressed or in the hospital or suddenly be experiencing a massive headache from somebody tossing a nearly full can of Coke right in our face without even thinking about it. (That happened to me once. Luckily, Dad and I'm sure God, too, were there.)

Who knows how many times our house might have been broken into, or a drunk driver might have smashed into our car, if God hadn't been watching over us?

Don't get me wrong. I know things like that happen all the time to Christians, but with God there's always hope. Thank you, Lord!

Friendship, as we all should know, is wonderful and is something everybody should experience. All of us really ought to have that one special person we can call up almost any time of the day just to say hello. Even if some of you say, "No, I don't, we just moved out into the boonies with positively no interesting people for neighbors or anything," there's always that wonderful Fellow in heaven who'll listen to anything you have to say, I'm sure. Thanks, God!

Friendship also ties in with love and family, which we should definitely be thankful for too. God loves us practically to death; if we repent of even the greatest sins He will forgive us and continue to love us like His children, which we are. What a wonderful thing to be part of God's family. Thank you again, Lord!

Prayer is the wondrous communication with God Himself. I don't know how many millions of times God has answered my prayers, and I'm sure he does the same for you too. Thank Him for it!

The Sabbath, a time set aside for worship and rest, is something we can be thankful for.

All week most of us slave away at work or school or whatever but have the Sabbath to look forward to, when we can sing songs of thanks to our Lord and fellowship with our good friends and generally have a good time.

And, last but definitely not least, we have God Himself. So forget the turkey for half a minute and thank God for God!

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