L. A. HAPPENINGS As most of you read this, our annual Thanksgiving Dinner is here. So many of you have signed up to bring food for the dinner. I hope you’ll plan to stay for the meal after our worship service. There’s always plenty of food – and then some – so even if you forgot to bring anything to add to the Thanksgiving feast, don’t worry about it. Stay anyway, and enjoy! Next Sunday, December 1, is Laurel Avenue’s annual Corporation Meeting. They’re not particularly fun, but they are fairly painless. Not to mention it’s a requirement of the state of Ohio. Let me encourage you to make the commitment to be present for this meeting. If we fail to have a quorum then we will have to reschedule it for another time. Look at it this way: Let’s give the state of Ohio an early Christmas present! Just another reminder that our Christmas Party is scheduled for Sunday, December 8, in the fellowship hall. More info coming soon! HUMAN NATURE: French novelist Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) was born two centuries ago, and his insight seems prophetic for today: “The earth has its boundaries but human stupidity is infinite.” Our stupid-ability is, to borrow a phrase from Buzz Lightyear, “to infinity and beyond.” Forget Not All His Benefits David the prophet proclaimed: “Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” (Psalms 103:2) The Apostle Paul encourages us with these words: “Everything you do or say, then, should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks to Him through God the Father” (Colossians 3:17). Prayer is a constant event in the life of a Christian. And one of the main parts of that prayer is giving thanks to God. In November, our nation recognizes a day set aside to give thanks. The original presidential proclamations of this holiday all point out that the subject of our thanks should be to our Creator – the Lord God of the Bible. George Washington once wrote: “it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits …” Give thanks to God for all our gifts. That is exactly what we all should do this Thanksgiving. But according to Colossians 3:17, we should be thankful for what we have and who we love 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not just one day a year. However, Thanksgiving would be a good time to count your blessings and tell God, “Thank you.”