Thanksgiving is more than an annual holiday. It’s a way of life practiced more frequently than we may realize.

Have you ever avoided a near miss accident on the highway, caught your breath, looked up to the sky and said “Thank you?” Have you ever feared rejection by another but received acceptance, and said “Thank you” to an unseen presence about you? Have you ever been stranded in such a perilous circumstance that you thought there was no way out, but found a way out, and then paused to say “Thank you” to an invisible guiding hand?

If you think about it, there are probably countless times over the last year when you stopped to say “Thank you” to a power above yourself.

I know there are many times I’ve felt grateful, and knew the blessings I was witnessing came through a power not my own.

When my son and I came out of a car accident completely untouched last summer, I was grateful beyond words, and I knew I owed the hand of divine Providence a debt for the protection.

Giving thanks is an expression of spirituality. It is our true spiritual self coming out for all to see, including ourselves.

Selfishness, indifference, apathy, ego, self-centeredness are evil and lack the grace of gratitude. But they are not spiritual either, and are alien to our God-given individuality. We want nothing to do with them. They shrink in upon themselves and wither into an ugly paltry miniscule whimper of error that vaporizes into nothingness.

It’s nice to have an annual holiday to remind us of the value and importance of giving thanks. It’s Thanksgiving Day in the USA today. And my family and I will talk about all the things we have to be grateful for this year. But above all, I find great peace in knowing thanksgiving is not a rite imposed upon us by a political government. Giving thanks has been bred into our being by God Himself, and is a natural and normal practice for us as divine offspring.

We give thanks because we want to, not because we have to.

Enjoy your opportunity to give thanks today. The good you see and acknowledge opens the door for more to come.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Malachi 3:10