As we journey through this month of November, I pray we will all grow in our thankfulness for the things we have been blessed with by the Lord. I fear that we too often fail to appreciate what we have until we don’t have it anymore. I fear that we become accustomed to the blessings we have and we take them for granted, and then we neglect them and become complacent about them until we may end up losing them altogether. This happens in marriages, families, churches, friendships, even in our material blessings from God in the things we possess. God is good and He grants us all much goodness. He gives even more benefits of His goodness to His children. God blesses everyone through His creation. If a person has been born again, then they have been miraculously and incredibly blessed by the Lord God Almighty. The fact the God even makes forgiveness available to us sinners is an amazing blessing in itself. When we realize how blessed we are, it helps us to realize the blessings we have. When we realize how greatly we have been blessed, it motivates us to have a greater gratitude for our blessings. When we are grateful, it causes us to see and acknowledge the blessings we have been given. I want to encourage each of us to think about how blessed we are and put forth much effort this month to acknowledge more of the blessings we have been given. This year I want to encourage each of us to take some time to write some praises of thanks on one of the pumpkins on the table in the foyer. We are calling them Praise Pumpkins, and I want to encourage us all to write some of the things that God has blessed us with in our lives. The more grateful we are the more we appreciate how we have been blessed. God gave us a great Missions Emphasis month in October, and it was a wonderful blessing to have Rick and Regina Adams with us last week. We have been blessed by the Lord to be able to give our missionary families an extra gift for the holidays and help with several projects. I am thankful that new people are getting involved in Faith Missions Giving. I also praise the Lord that we have more people committed to mission giving and uttermost giving; with more committed to be given, we can continue helping spread the Gospel in other places around the world.