Life, health, strength and church familyI am thankful for God in my life. I am also thankful for my children, grandchildren and my family and friends. I am thankful for my life, health, strength. I am also thankful for the ministers and churches that I attend whenever I have the opportunity. I am also thankful for my own church and church family. I am thankful for my mother’s church that is still in my life. I am thankful for the father that I had, who passed away on Nov. 25, 1978, and also thankful for the mother that I had who passed away 28 years later on Nov. 25, 2006. Thankful for the military, all branches of service. For the sacrifice for their time and lives to keep us safe. May God bless you all and also your families because you are. Thankful for my two sons, the youngest one in the Navy for your years, his twin brother in the Air Force since December 2007. I am also thankful for my job, full time and part time. I am thankful for being able to do something I enjoy and love to do and that is helping people. I want to end by saying that God is still opening doors. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and may God bless all of you. Just pray for everyone. There is always power in prayer. I am a true believer in that.
óBeverly H. Sloan
Salisbury
A land of opportunity ó we are free!
My dictionary defines “grateful” as thankful, pleasing and appreciative. We should all be thankful to be living in America, the best country in the world! We should be pleased that we have so many opportunities in endless areas of life, including education, careers, personal relationships, religious associations, etc.
In my opinion, the most important role we can play in being grateful is to wholeheartedly acknowledge and express our deepest appreciation for our wonderful freedom!
I have known awesome America for only 65 years. Up until age 18, I had freedom, but it was limited to and filtered through the “mother-may-I” process. Upon arriving at the young adult stage, however, we are all suddenly introduced to our country’s most extreme opportunity ó free choice. We can choose everything, from our apparel of the day to political and religious affiliations and more, with no penalties levied due to our background or skin color. Black, white, red or purple ó it doesn’t matter. We are free!
We continue to enjoy this gift because of the many men and women, past and present, who have chosen to serve, fight and even die for what some of us take for granted ó our country, our freedom. We should graciously thank them all.
Personally, I choose to be a Christian. I pray to God for the safety of our military personnel and the wisdom of their leaders and our country’s leaders. I offer my heartfelt thanks to them all. I believe we should all seize every minute of freedom we have ó look at it and really see it ó live it ó and never let it go!
ó Margaret T. Shumate
Salisbury
Everyone wants more, but we have plenty
As we approach the so-called Thanksgiving season, let us all humble ourselves in the presence of the Almighty God, bow our heads and thank him ó not only for the blessings of the day, but for the blessings that he bestowed on us the whole year long.
God has been so good in supplying our every need. We have had food to suffice our needs all year, a roof over our heads, and we haven’t had to go around naked or freeze to death. Everyone wants more, but God promised to supply our needs ó not everything we want, even though he sometimes gives us more than we want or deserve ó we should be thankful for all of that daily and give him thanks daily.
I’m thankful that I am an American and live in this great country we call America. I’m thankful for the freedom I have as a U.S. citizen (even though we have lost most of the freedom our forefathers fought and died for, we still have more than any other country).
We still have a God-given right to vote for whomever we want to guide our great nation, and even though we make mistakes in our choice at times, we still have the right to correct that the next time around.
Most countries’ citizens do not have that choice. I thank God for the health he has given me, a wonderful church to attend, godly church leaders, a loving church family ó but most of all I thank God for dying for me and leaving behind a simple plan for salvation ó John 3:16 ó that I might spend eternity in heaven with Him.
Thank you, Lord, for loving me and for your blessing on life.
ó Lawrence Couch
Mocksville
A grandmother who showed us how to liveWhen I was growing up, I loved to stay with my Maw Maw Cope, especially on weekends. She lived close to uptown Salisbury. My cousins would come from Charlotte by train or bus. We could walk to the dime stores, Center Theater for a movie and to her church.
My grandmother was a great role model. She was an LPN nurse, a great cook and sewed a lot and made most of my clothes. She had a beautiful garden and sold flowers to the local funeral home. She love to fish.
But most of all she loved Thanksgiving and Christmas, because that was the time she would have the whole family together. Thanksgiving was the time she would get the Sears and Roebuck Christmas catalog out and we would write down two things we would like to have for Christmas. It would take her one year to the next to pay for it.
My grandfather, whom I didn’t know, was killed in a Southern Railroad accident where he worked. My grandmother was left to raise three girls alone on a $32-a-month pension from the railroad. Only then is when she went to get her LPN nurses license and was in the workforce. My uncle Bill and others helped convert her home into three apartments so she would have income. My grandmother never seemed mad or stressed or whatever they called it back then.
I think about that. How could you be thankful for something like that? How would I handle something like that this day and time?
I remember her reading her Bible and reading Psalm 100, and when I went to her church the congregation would read it every time, not just at Thanksgiving. (Read Psalm 100.) When I read it, I see shouts of joy, service with a smile, singing unto him, his authority, his authorship, his assurance, public and personal praise, his goodness, his mercy and his truthfulness. I know that my grandmother looked to God for directions in her life, and holding on to the faith she had in Psalm 100 pulled her through. She found a way through God’s love to work and provide for her family.
I will always be thankful I have had her in my life. This Thanksgiving season, let us remember to be more thankful to God for our blessings and our benefits. May our Thanksgiving celebration be heartfelt and praises to God.
ó Linda Holshouser
Salisbury
Accepting what I can’t change
Americans should be thankful for having a belief in God. It’s not always about the harvest. To me, it’s about accepting things I cannot change and changing the things I can. I believe that we are a blessed nation, but we must love our fellow man. I am really truly thankful that I am still alive, able to see, feel, smell, walk, talk, feel with the grace of God. All things will work out ó with harvest, with turkey or chicken. I shall still praise and give thanks to our Father in heaven for everything. “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
ó Brenda Faye Chalk
Spencer
Believe, have faith and trust in God
We should be thankful for a God …. who loves us all, who knows it all, who sees it all, who can do it all. Just believe, have faith and trust in his name. Amen. We are blessed. You all have a blessed Thanksgiving. Give God praises.
ó Bessie Ruth Krider
Salisbury
A safe, warm place for people to go
While so many people are suffering and hungry, and while there are so many seniors and disabled people in our community who do not have a safe and warm place to go, we should be so grateful and thankful that we have BethAmy Retirement Center in Spencer, where our clients are safe, warm and loved. Our “thank you” from the staff and clients here especially go out to Susan Morris, Ms. Kitty and Stephanie Hartley, who give so much of themselves everyday to assure that everyone here is treated with kindness, love and respect. Happy Thanksgiving.
ó Staff at BethAmy
Spencer
Everything, starting with mom’s health
I’m thankful for everything that God has given to us: My mom’s good health. My good health. Having helpful and supportive family and wonderful friends. My Bethel church family, my cocker spaniels and the happiness they add to life, being employed when so many are out of work and having a warm bed to sleep in and plenty of food to eat.
I’m thankful that so many people voted during this election.
I’m very thankful for our “little kid” cousins. Thankful that my aunt Susan has finished her chemo and her surgery went well, and she’s going to be finished taking radiation not too long from now.
Thankful for people who help other people, whether it be by volunteering, praying or sharing their gifts.
Thankful that David Clark donated land this year for Faithful Friends’ Animal Sanctuary.
I’m thankful that gas prices have fallen.
Also, thankful for the little things that we take for granted, ó like kind clerks and restaurant employees who have a smile on their face and treat their customers nicely.
For having Roy Williams coaching at Carolina.
Also, I’m thankful to be able to drive where I need to go, for the much-needed rain in September and October, for those that recycle and for comfortable shoes.
ó Lora Owen
Salisbury
Consider every day a time for thanks
On the fourth Thursday in November, we set aside a national day of thanksgiving. It is a holiday for family activities, traditional football contests, and sumptuous dining.
Maybe some in our nation will pause to give thanks to Almighty God for the blessings they have received. However, in light of our current economic recession, it might be easier to simply conjure up negatives and overlook thanksgiving.
You know, there is something false about a one-day annual celebration of thanksgiving anyway. It is unreal to focus on the good life in such a gluttonous way, and then feel that we have satisfied our annual expectation to be thankful.
What seems to be needed by all of us in today’s world is an ongoing “attitude of gratitude.” I’m not speaking about a one time expression of gratefulness, but rather a way of living. It affects our whole outlook on life, which becomes one of gratitude to God for everything ó even in the midst of a recession.
Maybe it would do well for us to consider each day as one for thanksgiving. As scripture has it, “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures for ever!” (Psalm 106:1)
Our thanks is to God, for his steadfast love that surely endures forever. May we sense the wonder of the gracious love and bountiful goodness that come to us from the hand of God.
ó Dr. David P. Nelson
Salisbury
Editor’s note: Nelson is interim pastor of Grace Lutheran Church.
The things my mother taught me
I’m thankful for the “cause of Christ.”
I’m thankful for the things my mother taught me.
I’m thankful for all the things in my house. When I sit down to pray and name each of them, I can’t mention them all for lack of time. They are things that make my life easier, that give me comfort and that give me treasured memories.
I’m thankful for my Bible because it contains God’s holy word.
I love to hear Christian music, too, for which I am also thankful.
I’m thankful for my nieces and nephews, my children and grandchildren.
I’m thankful for servicemen who have served in the military, because I believe this has kept us from becoming a country of communism. We’re keeping war and terror off our land and defending the defenseless on their land.
I’m thankful for the Lord Jesus Christ dying for our sins on the cross. See what love! He let us escape if we believe and obey. He did this for all of us!
May God bless you.
ó Elaine Putnam
Salisbury
Soldiers, family, friends and teacher
Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday. I’m thankful for many things, like the soldiers, my family, many friends and my teacher, Ms. Medley. Happy Thanksgiving to all!
ó Lauren Grimes
Salisbury