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Highlands Today

Today's A Time For Thanks

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By Raleigh Whiteman | Highlands Today

Published: November 22, 2007

Thanksgiving is a special day for giving thanks for the blessings we have received all year long. It is arguably one of the very few that has not gone completely commercial and a day that most will, after not praying or talking to God on a regular basis, at least thank Him for the the meal and blessings He has bestowed upon us.

I am thankful for being able to get up this morning and walk outside and pick up this morning's Tampa Tribune and Highlands Today and read my column.

And to the hundreds and hundreds who enjoy reading what I have written, I give you my thanks.
I give thanks to God for giving me the good fortune to have such a wonderful wife for the past 25 years and five months.

I'm thankful for our children and grandchildren and pray for their good health and happiness.

I, and so should you, give Him thanks for our wonderful nation.

We should pray that the United States will survive and win the war against terrorism, and regardless of who is going to be the presidential nominees, we will still have the best country on earth.

Pray For The Soldiers

I'm not at all sure if praying to our God about the problems in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Muslim or Islam countries will have any influence over their god in ending their conflicts that we seem to be unable to end.

We should try and keep praying for our servicemen and women who are in harm's way every day they are over there.

Especially pray that God will give our leadership some divine guidance in avoiding any further conflicts with Iran and Pakistan.

It was more than five yeas ago that we were worried about having to go to war with Saddam Hussein in Iraq because he had stockades of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and would not give them up. We are still looking for those WMDs and now are fighting those who do not want us to be there five years later with no end in sight. We did manage to find and kill the only person who had control of that nation and have not found a replacement who has the power to put an end to the radical insurgents.

Rules To Follow

There are still a lot of people and organizations that are against any form of religion being displayed in our public buildings but many still try to display the Ten Commandments, especially around courthouses. It could be that the reason is to try to get more people to obey the laws set forth when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the first laws from God.

If that is the reason, to keep people from breaking some basic laws, then probably no one would object if there was a big sign in every courthouse with the following.
1.You should have no more than one God.
2. Don't worship idols.
3. Don't cuss.
4. Go to Sunday meeting.
5. Honor your ma and pa.
6. Do not kill anybody.
7. Don't mess around after you're married.
8. Don't steal.
9. Don't fib or gossip.
10. And don't hanker for a friend's things.

Of course there are other things that can get you in trouble but if everyone just followed these rules we could save a lot of money by having fewer jails and prisons.

Raleigh Whiteman, of Lake Placid, can be reached on the Internet at rwwhiteman@comcast.net

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