I was visiting with my friend Rick Collier and we were talking about what it was like when we were growing up in Tulsa. We had several things in common, including coming from poor families and growing up in Tulsa around Sheridan Road (probably from Admiral Boulevard to 41st Street).

I usually had a bowl of cereal for breakfast and a 35-cent plate lunch at school. We ate mostly hamburgers or something with hamburger meat in it for dinner. When we went out to eat, which was rare, it was a treat. I loved going to places like Shotgun Sam’s, Casa Bonita and Borden’s Cafeteria (on top of Sheridan Village Shopping Center at Admiral Boulevard and Sheridan Road).

When I was a teenager, jobs were hard to get. My first job paid $1 an hour and I never made more than $2.25 an hour in any job before I graduated from high school.

When I was 16, I bought a used Ford Falcon for $500 and it took my two years to pay it off. I wouldn’t fill it up with gas (at about 50 cents a gallon) because I was almost always short on funds.

Things have changed.

America is more prosperous. I am more well off and so are my family and friends.

I was taught to work hard by my father and my employers. I am benefitting from that counsel.

Some things are bad these days. Inflation is coming back big time and it is particularly hard on working people.

Workers are quitting jobs at hospitals, police and fire departments, the military and workers all over are quitting rather than be forced to take the Chinese coronavirus vaccine – which they don’t need or don’t want.

Our southern border is being flooded by desperate people who come illegally and go on welfare. The number of abortions is rising. Men think they can turn in to women and think they can become men (they can’t).

Churches have stopped teaching all of the Bible. They don’t talk about God’s righteousness or Hell because they think their congregations don’t want to hear anything negative.

Schools are teaching our children that all white people are racists. Universities are denying free people and protesters shout down anyone with an opposite view. The liberal news media injects their secularist opinions into every story and they only tell one side of an issue.

Here’s my point.

Times were tough when I grew up. That adversity, coupled with a faith in Jesus Christ, helped me develop character and the perseverance to endure tough times.

In some aspects, things are worse now.

But there is still much to be thankful for.

I have a wonderful family, with three married children and two lovely grandchildren. I have a wife who has loved me and cared for me for almost 40 years.

I have a church family. My Sunday School class is full of people who love the Lord, love people and jump at opportunities to serve others and spread the Gospel.

I have a business that I love. We work out of an office in our home. We have wonderful people who contribute regularly to the success of the Tulsa Beacon.

We are blessed to have faithful advertisers, readers and subscribers. You don’t know how encouraging it is and how thankful we are for so much support over the years.

We have a lovely house that we own outright. We have cars with no debt. We have freezers and a pantry full of food.

As we age, we have encountered some medical issues but nothing overwhelming. We have great insurance (Medicare, etc.) and we have doctors who are skilled and who genuinely want to help us live healthy lives.

There is plenty to criticize about our various levels of government, but I am thankful for the people who pick up our trash each week; the policemen who patrol our streets; the firefighters who stand ready to take care of us; the ambulance crews who save lives; the workers who give us clean tap water; and the courageous legislators who try to make good laws.

I am thankful for our military and how they protect us.

I am grateful for our freedom, even though at times it seems as though it is in jeopardy. We have a tremendous heritage of freedom in the United States

This Thanksgiving, I am really thankful. An important part of prayer is giving thanks to God for what He is doing over and over.

Every year at Thanksgiving, our family sits down to a wonderful feast prepared by my wife and we each give a short testimony of something for which we are thankful.

It could take a long time to read my entire list this Thanksgiving.