A Lot to be Thankful For….

Where did Thanksgiving go? It seems like we take down the Halloween decorations and put up the Christmas decorations. I love Christmas but we don’t need to skip Thanksgiving. Some will tell you it is because the stores want to expand the Christmas shopping season and that may be true.

Sometimes we get hung up on the negative, our frustrations and things we don’t have. That is why I LOVE Thanksgiving, that and Mama Dot’s turkey and dressing. Seriously we need to take a minute and think about what we do have and be thankful. The events on the road in front of my house really put things in perspective. When my wife and children leave now for a long time, they will drive by the painted markings where the lifeless bodies of two young men laid.

I know unemployment is high and we have the tax debate going on the senior exemption. But you don’t have to look too far to find those less fortunate who are living in cardboard boxes or under highway overpasses. On mission trips to Honduras and Haiti in the past we’ve driven through crowds that descended upon us for the small bowl of food we would share until it ran out and maybe that one piece of candy that missionaries are known to carry in their back packs. Their precious little faces are priceless with eyes as big as saucers. And I know we have these same opportunities here at home.

I don’t say this in any way to trivialize the struggles that many are feeling here at home. I know times are hard, jobs are scarce and sometimes the future seems a little bleak. But life is 20% what happens to you and 80% how you respond to it. The Lord has blessed our community with improvements, growth and provision these past years and my prayer daily is that He will continue to do that.

To you and yours, a Happy Thanksgiving…the forgotten holiday.

Ronald E. Ham
Chairman – Brantley County Commission