Have you ever thought that there is a difference between gratitude and thanksgiving? There actually is. Gratitude is a feeling whereas thanksgiving is more of an action. If someone does something for me, I can feel grateful. My offering of thanks to that person is an action. One can feel gratitude without thanksgiving. One cannot feel thankful without feeling grateful. Thanksgiving is gratitude in action.

Looking at life in general, the person who lives a grateful life counts his or her blessings privately. The person who is thankful honors the giver of those blessings. For instance, I’m grateful that I woke up feeling relatively healthy this morning. I’m thrilled that I’m not sick or in the hospital since many people in the world today woke up sick or in the hospital. Now what if I take my healthy day and squander it doing bad things—if I eat or drink to excess while sitting on the couch watching bad movies? What if I drive like a maniac, act like a jerk at work, and don’t help out around the house? I may have gratitude for health, but where is my thankfulness for my health? I have taken a healthy day and I have made it into a self-serving day. Again, thanksgiving is gratitude in action.

How do we feel about God’s gifts to us? Grateful or thankful? Do we express our gratitude with outward thanksgiving to God or are we privately grateful with no action? Using the example above, if I wake up healthy today, then I should go out and do something productive and wholesome in thanksgiving for my health. If my health is a gift from God, then I should honor Him with thanksgiving. If the two greatest commandments are to love God and love our neighbor, then a grateful heart becomes a thankful heart by becoming a charitable heart. The gratitude for health on a given day leads to a thankful heart that expresses it in service to others.

Another way to define these terms is that the grateful heart is content, while the thankful heart is helpful. Going to the Psalm verse above, to “magnify Him (God) with thanksgiving” calls us to action. To “magnify” the name of the Lord means to “make greater” His name by honoring Him. And we honor God not so much with praise but with action. For to love God means that one must love others. Gratitude is an inward feeling of joy and contentment. Thanksgiving is an outward display of gratitude. It is an outward display of joy shown in loving action.

The goal then is to develop a grateful heart, one that recognizes the gifts of God, and turn it into a thankful heart, which glorifies God through loving expressions toward others. Gratitude means we are pleased with ourselves. Thanksgiving offers things that please God. Thanksgiving is gratitude in action.

​Show your gratitude toward God by doing something selfless today.

Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis | November 2020 | Prayer Team 365 original article

Care program for congregations who commit to the Earth Care Pledge. This requires them to accomplish a certain number of actions toward caring for God’s earth in four areas: worship, outreach, education, and facilities. Last spring, Session approved a study committee to determine if our church should become an Earth Care congregation. The purpose of Earth Care is to promote proper stewardship of God’s creation while also seeking justice for those in need.

Over the summer, Session members completed evaluations in the above four areas. Using the evaluation form provided by the denomination, we ascertained that we qualified in three of the areas, with worship falling a bit short. Nonetheless, in September, Session approved the Earth Care pledge, which pledges our church to pursue Earth Care in all four areas throughout our ministry. It does not mean everything will be about Earth Care, it simply means we will incorporate elements of it in specific ways. It may be as simple as singing hymns that celebrate and honor God’s creation. The Green Summit which was held at our church last year is an example of outreach that earned us points toward accreditation as an Earth Care Congregation. The number of ways we can show honor to God by caring for His creation are innumerable. In general, any costs to be a part of this program would be channeled through our various ministries.

Now that the Earth Care pledge has been approved, next steps will include earning the necessary points in the area of worship, and completing an application to be certified as an Earth Care Congregation. That will be submitted at the beginning of next year. Once certified, we will need to earn the necessary points in each category to continue being certified.

The Earth Care Team has been brainstorming ways to incorporate earth care activities into some of our ministry. Current members of the team are myself, Logan and Rachel Hazard, Donna Brundage, Megan Marvil  and Warren Bakes. If you would like to be a part of the team, visit with any one of us and we would be happy to have you join the team.

There is a wonderful hymn I recently discovered which most of you know. It is titled “How Can I Keep From Singing”, and when I stop to fully consider the wonder and mystery of God’s handiwork, I want to break out in a song of praise. I bet you will feel the same way!

In His Name, George

the earth. People fight over every imaginable thing they can think of, land, resources, people, and of course pride. Hearing that North Korea was sending troops to help Russia against Ukraine, and all of the horror happening in the Middle East, makes me wonder why people even answer the call to arms.

In North Korea, I doubt they have a choice about where they go or who they fight, they simply do as they are told. Some nations see something they want and they rally their populace to go seize their neighbor’s goods no matter the cost. Other nations answer the call to arms to defend themselves and simply survive. Sadly, many nations follow an ideal of religious fervor and declare their call to arms as an act of worship. Sometimes the call to arms is a worthy call, like defeating slavery or tyranny. Yet all too often, I see older leaders directing war from the safety of their castle and sending their young out to die for their desires. War has been such a constant part of the human story that I am not sure if there will be a day when the call to arms is no longer needed on this earth.

Thankfully, in the US, we have not drafted soldiers into the military since the Vietnam War. Our men and women now answer the call to arms on a voluntary basis. Our veterans chose to serve their country willingly. Some saw the benefits of discipline and education, others sought adventure, and some chose to defend those who could not defend themselves. Some of them have worked faithfully in peacetime and others have borne the burden of the battlefield.

Our veterans have ensured that I did not have to bear arms against an enemy myself. They have shielded and insulated me from the day-to-day grief of war. I have only had to experience these tragedies from pictures or videos or a few eyewitness testimonies of loved ones. There is no way to express my gratitude for this. Seeing pictures of fallen soldiers, or the many monuments in DC, my heart is overcome. How would I be able to bear witness to the actual battlefield?

Every Veteran’s Day I look forward to being able to give back some of the immense gratitude I feel for the many men and women who have answered the call to arms for my country. Perhaps the best way to show my gratitude would be to serve as an agent of peace.

Could I offer peace in the day-to-day conflicts of my life? When my neighbor is hurt or offended could I stop to listen? When someone from the opposite political side calls names could I invite them to remember the human behind the name? Instead of hating the people who do awful things in the world, could I pray for them? When someone is facing a tough moral decision can I offer love and understanding without advising them to death? When someone cuts me off on the road can I offer a smile instead of anger? Helping to resolve the little conflicts I encounter could be my tiny seed of peace in a big world. Perhaps my small acts of peace will call me to a different kind of arms. The kind that battles in prayer and fights with kindness. The call to love my enemies and pray for those who misuse you. If I act in peace, maybe there will be one less person calling for war.

Thank you to all the veterans who answered the call, may God grant you peace.

In His Name, Bonnie

​Smiling, he asked, “Child, what are you doing?”

The girl looked up and replied, “I was worried about your journey, but don’t know any prayers, so I thought I’d pray the alphabet to God and let him assemble the prayer.”

With a soft chuckle the man kissed the girl’s forehead, said farewell, and set out.

Some time later he found himself in the forest and heard the sound of some large creature ahead. Not knowing if it be man or beast, he remembered some recent rumors of a bear roaming the timberlands. And so, hoping to avoid danger, he stepped off the path to walk around, certain he’d find his way with only a little delay.

As night fell, and he increasingly realized that he had become lost, his heart became fearful. For some time he had believed that the animal he’d heard earlier was stalking him.

It was dark and growing cold. He had not eaten for some time and he was thirsty. He had strayed from the only safe road through the woods. Again he imagined that he heard a rustle in the undergrowth.

He froze, fear gripping his heart.

Then he remembered his daughter that morning and the promise in the Scriptures that the Spirit makes intercession for us when we do not know what to pray.

The man dropped to his knees then and there and said, “Dear God, hear my prayer… A, B, C, D…”

In His Name, Mikal