A grateful heart

Thanksgiving.

A holiday with the meaning right in the name. A day of giving thanks. And yet I saw so much division on social media over Thanksgiving this year.

I have an opinion. On everything. From Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving to politics to gay marriage to abortion to home school to child raising methods to ways to cook a turkey. But having said that, they are my opinion. In some cases they are Biblically based. In others, they are cultural, based on my upbringing and in some, they are just how I feel.

And how I feel about Black Friday??? You do what you want. I will too. How I feel about Black Friday starting on Thursday? Again, you do what you want, and I will too. I know that people had to work so others could spend. But I saw comments on both sides of that, people happy for the opportunity to make money. Retail isn't the best pay, and for a single person, that might have been a pretty big deal. But some people don't need the hours and were forced to work. I get that that sucks.

I didn't shop at all yesterday or today. Don't usually on Black Friday. Not because I am opposed to it, (or think that "it's what's wrong with America", lol) but just because I didn't need or want anything that was a door buster or big enough savings to drive me out of the house.

I do think that saying it's what's wrong with America is stretching it just a little. Unemployment, fatherlessness, alcoholism, drugs, the knockout game, prison crowding, overall immorality? Hunger, homelessness, apathy. Maybe I think too much about things. Maybe I should stay away from social media.

This Thanksgiving I realized Wednesday as I went to the grocery store to pick up the stuff I forgot (ingredients for Whitney's macaroni and cheese) that I was also missing a grateful heart.

I could list for days the blessings I have, the things to be thankful for.

So I adjusted my attitude, I focused on the blessings I have.

And I had a wonderful holiday.