This is Thanksgiving week so it is an extra special time to be "thankful".

And I want you, as readers, to help. Email things for which you are thankful. "Always be Thankful" will be the name of my new devotional booklet which will be published and distributed shortly after the first of the year. I want to use "your thankfulness" as a part of it in some way; maybe not all of them will be included. But at least some will.

Several years ago as a Sunday School project, we interviewed one another. Along with names, addresses, family members, etc., we asked one another questions like 'one childhood memory you liked and one you would have changed if you could. And one adult memory that was a favorite and one that you didn't like.' I can still recall Roger Sumners reply to a favorite adult thing which had happened to him:  his Parkinson's. A disease which he has had for more than 20 years. Surprised me, I would have thought the affliction would have been in the 'not like' pile.

Have you every noticed how we are grateful for the good things that come our way. But don't add the "bad stuff" on to our thankful lists. What would happen if we told God "thank you" for everything?

After about three surgeries in not very many months for Merry and we were being called to the hospital again, I can recall telling God how I didn't want to do this and I certainly didn't want Merry to go through it. In my mind, I could hear Him say, "Tell me thank you."

My mental response was, "But I don't like this!"

And the thought which rattled through my head was, "I never said you had to like it!"

Must be what it means in the Bible when it says, "Always be thankful" (I Thessalonians 5:18).

So send me your thankful lists; now and then toss in something you really don't like!