It was easy to prepare last weekend’s service because it’s the time of year when our thoughts are focusing on Thanksgiving Day.

As the holiday nears, we naturally pay more attention to what we have in our lives to be thankful for.

During some family gatherings it is a yearly tradition for guests to tell the others what they are thankful for. Some people can bring their feelings forward and easily express what they are thankful for; others find it hard to put their feelings into words, or may never think about what they are thankful for.

As I began putting the service together, the word gratitude kept coming into my mind. That is a sign for me to look it up in the dictionary. Do you do that? It is a good practice to look words up from time to time just to re-familiarize our mind with them. After years of just using words, we can clump them together as if they are one in the same, like grateful and thankful.

Creating my Saturday night chat around Thanksgiving, I looked up thankful as well as gratitude. Dictionary.com tells us, the feeling of being grateful or thankful equals gratitude.

During the service, as I gave the prayer and meditation, I noticed a difference inside my body when saying grateful and thankful. Being thankful felt more like an outward expression of the gratitude I could feel inside, try it and see.

Thanksgiving (the act of giving thanks) is how we express our gratitude for all the good blessings God has already manifested into our lives.

When we put thankfulness in the center of our consciousness, praise and give thanks to God, we glorify all the blessings we have received. This action creates an opening for even more to come into our lives.

Remember, too, that our God is an awesome God who gives and gives when we are grateful for even the smallest of things.

Once the busy holiday season begins, I am always grateful for the people working at the stores so I can make my purchases. As I am checking out, I make a point to thank them as I appreciate them for being there.

There is so much to be grateful for including our spouse (or maybe no spouse), children, grandchildren, family, friends, pets, home, church, food, community, new neighbors, a summer garden, beautiful plants, trees, snow, a working vehicle and so much more.

Write a list; keep adding to it every day for as long as you can.

Do not limit yourself to the amount of goodness you can receive. We are children of an unlimited God and we live in a limitless world. Allow yourself to see all your blessings and give your approval to seeing them multiply.

Now, when you are ready, look at your list and take a few moments to just think on all your blessings. As you think on them give yourself time for being grateful so that the energy of gratitude can flow through you. As you experience the flow of gratitude, you will notice a slight happy heart energy deep inside you.

That happy energy raises your vibrational presence in the world and can lift you out of low feelings. Also, when you feel that happy energy it is another thing to be grateful for.

This Thanksgiving, experience your blessings by taking a few moments to think on them and watch how your entire body will be able to feel gratitude. It will be flowing through you and harmonizing the cells in your body making you feel better and better as it raises your very own energy vibration.

When you feel it, express your gratitude with a simple thank you! Perhaps you, too, will find that gratitude is a feeling you feel within you and saying thank you or being thankful is your outward expression of that gratitude.

Special note: If you look around your life and feel like you have nothing to be grateful for, sit quietly for a minute and think about the bible story in Mark 12:42 -44. It tells of a poor widow, who had nothing to give except two small coins. From her actions, Jesus told His disciples that she gave more than the others because they gave from their surplus, but she put in all she had.

God wants you to know His energy and to be grateful for all that it supplies you every day, no matter how small it seems.

In the quiet, think of all you do have; begin with eyes, hands, feet, hair color, the breakfast you had or the friend that listened to your story. You start small, but soon your list will expand, I promise!

Happy Thanksgiving and many blessings,

Linda La Croix

Unity Director at Unity of Lake Orion

See her Facebook page, A Spiritual Walk, or website, aspiritualwalk.com for more inspiration.