On Taking Things for Granted

There are times, perhaps, when all of us are moved by gratitude, and there are times when all of us may become careless about our blessings.

A favor done the first time is almost always appreciated. But a favor several times received may soon seem to be a commonplace occurrence and may even become a cause for complaint if it fails to be repeated as expected. Blessing which have been bestowed upon us often come to be looked upon as a continuing right.

So many things we may take for granted: health⎯until we lose it; food⎯until it is difficult to get; life⎯until it hangs in doubt⎯and many things besides. But it is not wise or well to take blessing or privileges for granted, however commonly they may occur: not the harvest of the year; nor our daily bread, nor the comfort of home, nor the love of those who wait there⎯nor freedom nor even life itself.

Nor must we expect to receive without giving, to prosper without working, to inherit without deserving.

And so, taking nothing for granted, we voice gratitude this day for all our blessings, naming only a few.

We are thankful that men may speak their minds; that public opinion and moral force are factors in fashioning our way of life, and that none are beyond their reach.

We are thankful for our may material blessings but more thankful for the measure of freedom that has survived in a world where much has not survived.

And with all that we are thankful for, we are aware that we must watch to see that things we are most thankful for shall not slip from us by he infiltration of false philosophies or by our own indifference to the dangers.

We are thankful for faith in the future⎯for faith that the future holds no problem too great to be surmounted by a thinking, working, repentant people.

For all our bounteous blessing we give gratitude to God, our Father, with fervent hope that we may never take them for granted. And in words from Shakespeare’s Henry VI: “Let never day nor night unhallowed pass, but still remember what the Lord hath done.”