Thanksgiving in April

Take a moment and examine the screen that you’re viewing this blog through. If you happen to be particularly clumsy like myself, that screen might have a few cracks and chips on it…or maybe an entire spiderweb of broken glass.

Sometimes these broken screens show up without our realization, but most of the time it happens after a tragic drop. For me, this drop happened after my hand slipped while opening a door. The phone flew and hit the ground face down with a sickening *splat*. Naturally, my reaction was just like this

This unfortunate series of events has led to plenty of blurry selfies, glass cuts on my fingers, and no more Apple facial recognition. But I realized something very important during all of this. For the first time in a long time, I had an unblemished phone screen for 3 months (which is truly a miracle for me) and when it finally cracked, I realized I had taken that luxury for granted. I never appreciated the screen when it was here, I only missed it when the screen finally became broken. Far too often, we take for granted the goodness around us. Maybe it’s in the people who support us or the individuals who make our lives easier. It’s essential for all of us to appreciate those individuals especially when we’re not in a season of gratitude.  My challenge to readers today is this:

Find 5 people who deserve your gratitude. Write each of their names down, and make an effort to thank them verbally in person or through a phone call.

I hope you’ll find that taking a moment to appreciate that goodness will foster more gratitude and help later on.

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

William Arthur Ward

Living to Serve,

-Michael Dowd