Giving Thanks

This is a General Thanksgiving prayer from the Book of Common Prayer (it is on page 836)

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us.  We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things.  Amen.

This has been one of my favorite prayers for a long time.  I think it is perfect for the Thanksgiving time. 

My favorite part is the paragraph that thanks God for failure.  I rarely think about failure as something for which I want to give thanks.  But the truth is that I have always learned more from my failures then I have from my successes. 

I also like the part that thanks God for tasks that require our best efforts.  There really is nothing better then accomplishing something that is a challenge.

As we move towards Thanksgiving and we think about what we are thankful for, I invite you to move beyond the usual things that we think about and move into giving thanks for your challenges and failures too.