Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Friends,

There is something beautiful about a season that asks us to stop striving, stop pursuing, and simply give thanks.

This year, I find myself thankful for the plainest gift of all: a door to come home through, with chairs pulled close and the stories we have all heard before and ask for anyway.

I know that many hearts are carrying more than gratitude to the table this season. I have come to believe that gratitude is not the absence of difficulty, but the recognition of goodness in the midst of it.
It asks us only to look at who is in the room, and home makes that easy, turning our eyes from everything we cannot fix to everyone we can love.

The most precious things in life have never been kept in a case: the love of country, the grace of God, the kindness of family and friends.

One of my mother’s favorite songs was taken from Psalm 118:24:
“This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”
I have come to love those words as she did. They remind me that each new day is a gift from God, worthy of gratitude, whatever it may hold. May we greet each morning with expectant hope, trusting in His goodness and remembering that our hope in Him is eternal.

So my prayer for you this Thanksgiving is that the door opens often, that you linger at the table, and that you rise from it certain that good things are still ahead.Your trust and your friendship are among the gifts I thank God for.

With love and thankfulness,
Shari