As I look back over this past weekend, the word that comes to mind is thanksgiving. I spent the weekend with 37 women from JCPC in Amicalola Falls for our Women's Retreat. As I reflect on my experiences from the weekend and my time here at JCPC, I continue to be grateful for the warm welcome that we received upon moving here. I am thankful for the constant support that this church family provides each week. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the ways that this cloud of witnesses has begun caring for our son, Will.  I am blessed to have the opportunity to grow in my faith with this community of believers.

I believe that thanksgiving is all about what God has done us. Since faith is our response to God's presence in our lives, then expressions of thanks are at the heart of our spiritual lives. From a very early age, I learned the practice of showing gratitude and sharing thanks for others. My mother spent time each year at Christmas and my birthday teaching me to write thank you notes. Anytime that we received a gift, not long after opening it, we sat down at the kitchen table and wrote our "thank yous".

What would you write in your thank you note to God today? Over the past few hours, days, weeks or months, what are you thankful for?

Many of the Psalms provide prayers and songs of thanksgiving. I was reading Psalm 100 this morning and found it to be meaningful prayer of praise and thanksgiving.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Amen.