If you watch and listen to all the gloom-and-doomers on the cable networks you would think the majority of this country is out of work, walking the streets like zombies in search of food, and sleeping under highway overpasses. I don’t doubt for a moment that things overall are not as prosperous as they may have been a year ago for a lot of people and that there is a lot of economic uncertainty in the future; I’m sure Tracey and I are not the only ones whose company letters wishing employees the sentiments of the season also include ominous language about further belt-tightening and cost-cutting in the coming year.

In this house, all we can do is look at ourselves and the things around us. And when we do, it’s near impossible to not see how blessed we are – the fact that we are both in good health, we have all our physical faculties and senses, a roof over our heads, food on the table, clean water to drink, a circle of family and friends we hold dear and are dear to us, are gainfully employed, and living in a country where there is no civil strife or war, and wwhere supermarkets are stocked with every kind of food imaginable.

In our support of Project Harambee we recently donated $100 for a dozen chickens that will provide eggs and food to communities in those parts of Africa where AIDS has decimated the population – places where in addition to the economic and social devastation caused by that epidemic you can also be killed simply for being a Christian and where young girls who have their first period have to stay out of school for weeks.

If you’ve recently lost your job, or discovered you have cancer, or face the upcoming holiday season without a loved one for the first time in years, things can look pretty bleak. But putting our faith and trust in a God Who is almighty and everlasting in His love, grace, and mercy, we can see just how our struggles often pale against those faced by millions upon millions of others in the world around us. This holiday season, I hope we can all try and keep things in a little perspective and put the “giving” back in Thanksgiving for all the ways in which God has been good to us here in the good ol’ USA so we can better the lives of others.

A blessed and happy Thanksgiving from all the Goodboys and Goodboys Nation weblog!