Let gratitude spread like COVID-19

by Bonnie Kay Baldwin
Lake Mills Graphic

In this season of Thanksgiving 2020, there is much the world, and families and friends near and far, have endured this past year. Many things have been unpleasant, difficult, and downright discouraging. As much as one can look back on all that has gone wrong, it helps to focus on things that have gone right.
Some of the positive outcomes could be, spending more time with family; a feeling of closeness to your loved ones; new opportunities; finding a new hobby to enjoy; and the moments of kindness and generosity that surprise and bless our lives and the world. Blessings that must not be forgotten.
So, for this Thanksgiving, the Graphic reached out for comments from local people who wanted to share some of their blessings.

“I am thankful for God who has blessed me for getting through my health issues. I am also thankful for my family and friends who help me, as well as the doctors and nurses who have gone way above and beyond for me and for all who need their help.”  
Roy Kvale (Lake Mills)

“I am so thankful for so many things. This has been a good year for me. This makes me feel sad though; I want to celebrate the blessings I have been given, but it is very hard knowing that others around me have suffered so much. I have family and friends that are, or have suffered with, COVID-19. I also have friends and family that are suffering with other illnesses and cancer. My hope is that I might somehow share the blessings I have been given with them, to somehow help them in their suffering. That would make me truly thankful.”  
Lisa Erickson (Emmons, no pictured)
“What am I thankful for? The usual things of course: my husband Dan; our three kids; their spouses and GRANDKIDS; family and friends; a roof over our heads; enough food and clothing. I’m cancer-free almost five years, and I‘m thankful for good medical care, a church across the street and our great pastoral care; gardens that welcome my nurturing; friends to go on a walk or out for burgers or pizza; my quilting friends that teach me as we go, and oceans and mountains that relieve stress. That is a long paragraph, but it’s my daily prayer of thanksgiving.”
Becky Martinson (Joice)

“This year to this point, we are all grateful to be healthy, and living in the greatest country in the world. We wish good health and full recovery to families not as fortunate as we have been. We are thankful for great friends and for our great community and church who have been so wonderful to our children. Happy Thanksgiving.”
Tom Wilhelm (Joice)
“We are thankful for the normal things, like our health, home and family.
We are so thankful for our faith, especially during this pandemic and through all the changes and loss this past year.
We are thankful for our church and church family, along with the community we live and work in.
We are thankful we live in America and the many freedoms we are able to enjoy every day.
We are so very blessed with joyful and energetic grandchildren, who have wonderful, loving parents.
We are thankful for each and every one of them and love them dearly.
‘Counting our blessings is like counting stars’.”
Becky and Larry Ritzert (Lake Mills)

“My list is lengthy of the things I am thankful for, but on the top of my list is my family and friends and our health. I am thankful that I know to focus on the things I have and not the things I don’t have.”
Karla Eaton (Lake Mills)

“As a single parent, I am so very thankful to have a job I love all year long. I was never unemployed. I never had to worry about keeping a roof over our heads or food on the table. Thankful for friends who I spent many hours a night, several nights a week, sitting outside, six feet apart on lawn chairs in a driveway. Now that it is cold outside, I am thankful for the Hallmark Channel. I am thankful for a loving family. Other than my immediate family, most of the other relatives I have not seen since Christmas, will probably not see them this Christmas. I am thankful for everyday that I am alive.”  
Lois Jamtgaard (Lake Mills, not pictured)
“The primary thing our family is thankful for is the salvation Christ has won for us by His cross, and the gospel which the Holy Spirit gives us that salvation and grants us faith to receive it. The other obvious thing we give thanks to our heavenly Father for, is the gift of family. So, besides these, here are some things, briefly stated, we are thankful for: Caleb (11) ‘Scarville Lutheran School’; Micah (9) ‘my eyes to see’; Lana (8) ‘friends’; Nora (6); ‘my dolls’; Luke (2) ‘Levi’; Levi (2) ‘Luke’; Katie, ‘the privilege of being a wife and mother’; Josh, ‘Where God has placed me in my family, with the congregations I serve, in the Scarville/Lake Mills community, in Iowa, near extended family, and in this great country’.”
The Rev. Josh Skogen family (Scarville)

Those that have agreed to share what they are thankful for, have not been exempt from pain and heartache. Each person faces challenges in different ways. Some of these have had health challenges, suffered multiple deaths in their family this past year, and day-to-day problems not mentioned here. Yet they strive to be positive and thankful for what they do have.