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Letter to the editor
Show someone your appreciation
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Forsyth County News
This morning, I finished my preparations for something our United Methodist Church calls “charge conference,” a time when we present our yearly reports to our district superintendent; a time where, for days, you don’t go out to be with people, something a pastor loves to do. Instead you are tied to a computer as you make sure all the reports are done.

My reward to myself was to sit down with a red notebook that had been presented to me on Pastor Appreciation Sunday, a wonderful idea that somebody had and that churches celebrate these days. Reading these notes of appreciation added a lift to my walk and a twinkle to my eyes. I’m thankful that people took time to say “thanks” for whatever I might have done for them.

The spiritual giant Norman Vincent Peale told about a conversation he had just before Thanksgiving during the depression years, when someone asked him what he would preach about on a Thanksgiving in the midst of a great depression. He, as a young pastor, was a little cynical in his response.

But this person reminded him that there were people who had done things for him for which he should be thankful. Isn’t there someone who had meant something to you that you never really thanked? Norman remembered an English teacher who had introduced him to some British poets that he quoted often in his sermons.

He determined to write her. It took several tries because she had relocated several times during all those years. After she received the note of thanks, she wrote back, saying that after 40 years of teaching, Norman’s letter was the first note of thanks she had ever received.

The sin of ingratitude! What about you? Who is that person from the past who said or did something that shaped who you are today? Did you ever tell them? Did you ever say “thanks?”

What better time than this season of Thanksgiving that we are about to embark on to finally write the letter you meant to write. You could be the best thing to happen to someone who needs to know their life meant something. They will be blessed, and so will you.

Pastor Ted Miller
Lanier United Methodist Church