Colors of Thankfulness

The streets in our area are lined with flags today. The sky is drab with clouds and many trees have already lost their fall decor, but the streets are lined with beauty.

The streaming red, white, and blue are not just reminders of those who have fought and fallen for us. They are our colors of thanksgiving. The blue of a late autumn night sky, the sharp whiteness of the stars and every other stripe, the bright red on the borders — we are thankful in these colors.

Thankful in the peace-filled nights we do not enjoy enough. Thankful in the cleanness and safety of our neighborhoods. Thankful in the absence of such violence as we see in the news.

The little things we take for granted, the things so many people in our world today long to experience, are in those colors. What did you see today?

Giving Thanks for Ministers

November is a good time to be thankful, and it is a month in which we are so often reminded to be thankful that we begin to look at it as a chore. We will not ask you to make another list or send another card to express your thankfulness. The November Church Herald and Holiness Banner celebrates the service of a longtime minister. Join us in being thankful for all our ministers as they serve the Lord!

Giving Thanks for a Godly Heritage

— by Mark Avery, Editor of The Church Herald and Holiness Banner. Excerpted from November editorial.

My heritage includes an edifying church experience. We did not attend a perfect church with a perfect pastor. Our pastor made mistakes, but he preached the Word of God.

My heritage includes a positive home environment. Once friends at school said our family was poor. I did not know that. We were loved, well cared for, well dressed, and had enough to eat. Our house was small but comfortable.

My heritage includes a positive living example. Among many outstanding qualities demonstrated by my parents were the qualities of stability and consistency. They practiced their faith. What was taught in Sunday school and in sermon was practiced a home, at work, and in the marketplace.

High on my Thanksgiving list is the heritage passed along from my parents. “The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places.” “The lines” suggest boundaries established for my good. My parents and other godly people helped me learn and apply biblical principles that have kept my life focused on serving God and others. I am grateful. Who would have thought God would use me in some phase of kingdom service. Indeed, His boundaries have led me in “pleasant [delightful] places.”