Thanksgiving Litany

Here’s a litany of thanksgiving from Bruce Gillette and Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. It was posted on the Center for Christian Ethics website.

Litany of Thanksgiving

O God, we thank you this day for Christians
who seek to live out their faith in their everyday lives.

We know that we cannot earn your love,
but we can respond to your love.
You call us to live holy lives
out of gratitude for all that you have done for us.

We thank you for people who find joy in the midst of trials and difficulties:
for the hospital patient who gives hope and inspiration to the visitor,
for the homeless person who teaches the social worker the meaning of faith,
for the family that prays together in the face of death.

We thank you for those who endure temptation:
for the young person who says “no” to a friend who wants to shoplift,
for the office worker who refuses to join in negative conversation,
for the company executive who puts justice before profits.

We thank you for those who are ever-generous in giving to others:
for the child who puts her allowance in the church’s mission offering,
for the young adult at a first job who dares to tithe his new income,
for the neighbor who gets up at four in the morning
to shovel his elderly neighbor’s sidewalk.

We thank you for those who are quick to listen,
slow to speak, slow to anger:
for couples who listen to each other in love,
for people who count to ten before speaking their minds
and then speak gently,
for people who remain calm and loving when others’ tempers flare.

We thank you for people who live out their faith by caring for orphans,
widows and others in need:
for foster parents and adoptive parents,
for those who seek to work for peace and justice
so that fewer people will be orphaned and widowed,
for those who share a cup of coffee with a lonely neighbor,
for those who visit in nursing homes.

We thank you for people who are doers of the word and not hearers only.
O God, may we be counted among them.
Help us to hear your word and to find joy in doing what you call us to do.

May we live our lives in thankful obedience. Amen.

~ from a worship service written by Bruce Gillette and Carolyn Winfrey Gillette for the Center for Christian Ethics.  Posted on http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/174967.pdf