Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our Reading titled Thankful Hearts was written by Po Fong Chia.

Hansel Parchment was in a predicament.

He caught the bus to the wrong place for his semifinal in the Tokyo Olympics and was left stranded with little hope of getting to the stadium on time.

But thankfully, he met Tregina Stoikovic, a volunteer helping out at the Games.

She gave him some money to take a taxi.

Parchment made it to the semifinal on time and eventually clenched the gold medal

in the 110-meter hurdle. Later, he went back to find Stwycovic and thanked her for her kindness.

In Luke 17, we read of the Samaritan leper who came back to thank Jesus for healing him.

Jesus had entered a village where he met ten lepers.

All of them asked Jesus for healing, and all of them experienced his grace and power.

Ten were happy that they'd been healed, but only one returned to express his gratitude. He came

back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him.

Every day we experienced God's blessings in multiple ways. It could be as dramatic as an answered

prayer to an extended time of suffering or receiving timely help from a stranger. Sometimes, his blessings can come in ordinary ways, too,

such as good weather to accomplish an outdoor task. Like the Samaritan leper, let's remember to thank

God for his kindness towards us. Today's our daily bread devotional scripture reading is from Luke chapter 17 verses 11 through 19.

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him.

They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice. Jesus, master, have pity on us. When he saw them, he said, go show yourselves

to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God

in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him, and he was a Samaritan.

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