I love Thanksgiving. I mean I love this concept of eating lots of good food with friends and family until you can’t eat anymore, and then eating some more, but the real meaning of thanksgiving is something I love even more. The concept of setting aside a day just to be thankful, and then celebrate with friends and family just how much there is to be thankful for. I know that meaning can sometimes get lost amongst all the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes, but what if on thanksgiving, we filled ourselves with gratitude? In the Message version of Ephesians 5 it says, “Thanksgiving is our dialect.” I think that is such a beautiful phrase. Could you imagine a place where the accent with which one spoke in was that of thanksgiving? Where everything they spoke had at least a hint of gratitude. Language is part of our identity whether we want it to be or not. It tells of where we’ve been, and the culture with which we were brought up in. I’m always captivated when I see someone of one race speak with the accent of another. It speaks louder than even their appearance. So what if thanksgiving really was our dialect. Maybe it wouldn’t speak of where we’ve come from, but it sure would tell of where we are going. Our lives may have had their share of hardship, but we’ve been saved from that, and the one who saved us, has also given us so much and so now the way we talk sure tell of that. We have so much to be grateful for that the very way in which we speak should be saturated with it. Maybe we forgot about the true meaning of thanksgiving a few days ago, or maybe we didn’t celebrate it as fully as we should have, but don’t worry, for gratitude is something we should celebrate more than one day a year. It should be something that is a part of us each day, just like the way we talk is something that is a part of us daily. And so with that I challenge you, starting with today, let thanksgiving become your dialect.