Thanksgiving is not just a holiday.

It is a way of life.

As we study the scriptures with Scott Pauley today,

we pray that God will help us learn how to develop grateful hearts and hopes.

One of the first things that we have to teach children is how to say thank you. I think our

Heavenly Father must be thinking the very same thing. We as his children sometimes

are so slow to learn how to just say thank you. I want to bring you to a truth today about

Thanksgiving that I hope will encourage you and it will help you in your relationships with other people.

And we have learned, of course,

that thanksgiving is to be given to God first. It begins vertically. But it doesn't stay that way.

It becomes horizontal, if you will. It begins with our relationship to God. And then it extends to our relationship with other people. As you offer thanks to the source of every good gift,

he reminds you of the many channels that he uses to deliver those gifts.

Sometimes it's easy to recognize blessings from a distance

and miss the ones that are right in front of us.

My favorite book of the Bible, as many of you know, is the book of

Philippians, and there are many scriptures that I could take you to to show you this truth. But let me

use Philippians Chapter 1, if I may, because it is one of the most tender letters the Apostle Paul ever

wrote. He's writing to friends, people that he deeply loves, that he prays for frequently.

And in his opening words in Philippians chapter 1, he says,

Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ,

to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons,

grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Then he goes on to say always in every prayer of mind for you all

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