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Good Morning Loved Ones,

A gentle rain and another cool spring day awaits to witness to your thankful work and worship.

Psalm 100 (The Message) - A Thanksgiving Psalm

On your feet now—applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.
Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn't make him.
We're his people, his well-tended sheep.
Enter with the password: "Thank you!"
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.
For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.

Your password to a blessed day is "Thank you!" It's amazing what saying it will do for you and for the people you encounter throughout the day. The baseline is the perfunctory, polite, Ms. Manners requirement that so many today omit. But as those accomplished and well versed in gratitude the baseline is underachieving. Eye contact, emotive voice and a smile is the next level. Off the charts is when the whole person gets in the act with a laugh, a leap, a song and a wide open embrace of the day. Step it up a notch today and see what what happens.

1) For the glory of my hands, feet, eyes, the senses of sight, touch, smell, hearing, for the lungs, heart, spleen and myriad other organs and functions that keep me going without thought or instruction, for being fearfully and wonderfully created, I give thanks.

2) For this home, this Gimme Cinco community that shares the minor and the massive thanksgivings and everything in between, for the exponential increase in my hope quotient that I experience when I open and read your five or six or seven, for this shared discipline that has changed my life, I give thanks.

3) For grandparents, all of them now gone for more than fifteen years, for their instruction, love, grace and care, for Diet-Rite sodas, Hi-Lite Ice cream, Yahtzee games and Sunday School with the Behrens', for white rice swimming in butter, the most delicious toast I have ever tasted and loving day care on Tremont with the Davidson's, for Lincoln Logs, toy trucks, toy John Deere tractors and fried chicken with the Nelson's, I give thanks. (It's a blessing to have 50% more G-Parents.)

4) For a blessed Memorial Day of extra sleep, accomplished tasks around the house, a family bike ride, a delcious dinner of "blackened teriaki chicken," and the grounding of wandering around the cemeteries to bless our memories.

5) For a welcoming community of faith, open to all and hospitable, for Lisa Ewald and the youth group from Nebraska that will arrive at Grandview Park about 6:30 pm and make it their home for three nights while they serve our community with Crosslines, I give thanks.

So, make yourselves at home talking praise. Whether it's a baseline day or you're off the charts we need to hear from each other. Open your hearts and share the blessings of this day.

Pastor Rick
http://gimmecinco.blogspot.com