A Grateful Heart

Dear Edinburg First Family,

Maybe you’re a little bit like me, and as soon as October rolls around, you’re

already thinking about the Thanksgiving dinner table. A confession: I absolutely already

have a grocery list and a detailed cooking schedule for Thanksgiving Day. This, of

course, rolls into thoughts about Christmas: the decorating, the gifts, the meal, the “will

we make tamales or buy them this year?” It is so easy to get caught up in “making the

holidays happen.” It is so easy to get lost in our well-intentioned desires to make the

holidays meaningful and beautiful that we miss the gift of these days.

This month, what if we were intentional about our gratitude? I recognize, too, that

the holidays can be a very difficult time for many people for many reasons. Gratitude

isn’t a way of glossing over the very real struggles in our personal lives or our

community, but a spiritual practice of gratitude can help to ground us in the very real

truth that God is with us no matter what we are facing. In worship, we’ll be exploring

gratitude. We’ll start with giving thanks to God for love that never ends in our All Saints

Sunday service. Then, we’ll give thanks to God for the gift of community as we look

forward to our Friendsgiving Luncheon with The Hub and Methodist Healthcare Ministry

Partners. In the following week, we’ll think about our gratitude for the calling that we

have received to bless others as we have been blessed. We’ll wrap up the church

calendar year by giving thanks to Christ, our Shepherd King. Be sure to stick around

after service on November 22 as we decorate for Advent and Christmas!

So how do we carry on the practice of gratitude this month outside of Sunday

service? In this newsletter, you’ll find a guide for how you and your family can weave in

a practice of gratitude throughout your day. Try one practice, or try them all at different

points this month. You might start with three things before bed, a thank-you note to

someone who has blessed you, or a prayer of thanks at the doorway as you leave or

come home. My hope is that these small, simple acts will slow us down enough to

notice the gifts already in front of us. Even in the middle of grocery lists and tamale

decisions, God is present at every table and in every moment. Even if we feel like we’d

rather the holidays just pass us by, God is with us working in the seen and unseen for

our good, and we are blessed to have a church family to walk alongside us.

With gratitude for each one of you,

Pastor Sarah