I have noticed that at Thanksgiving time it is difficult for people to give God thanks and praise. You hear people say on that day that they are grateful but that is where it ends. They rarely direct their thankfulness to God. One year my daughter's school had a Thanksgiving day program for the parents. I was so saddened that during the program all they could sing about was "Tom Turkey." You would have thought that it was a poultry holiday.

Not only is it difficult for us to give thanks, but it seems that we can not graciously receive thanks. If we listen carefully to various conversations we will notice that sometimes someone will say, "Thank you," only to have the other person say, "No, thank you." Obviously, giving thanks has become a meaningless exercise for many people. We have reduced it to the level of telling one another to "have a nice day." This is nothing new; in our text Jesus was having the same problem.

So was one young mother who was preparing a dinner party at her home. She had spent all day in preparations for the big event. She was nervous and wanted everything to be just right for her guests. She had cleaned the house from top to bottom, polished the silver, arranged the flowers, and even made little name cards for each guest. Finally, the guests arrived and were eventually seated at the dinner table. The young mother turned to her daughter and asked her to offer the prayer. The daughter said that she did not know what to pray. "Just pray what Mommy would pray," the mother said. The little girl thought for a moment and then prayed, "Dear Lord, why did I invite all these people to dinner?"