A. J. Cronin was born in 1896 in Cardross, Scotland. He was educated at Dumbarton Academy where he received baccalaureates in medicine and surgery. In 1914, he entered the Glasgow University Medical School, graduating in 1919. During World War I Cronin served as a surgeon in the Royal Navy. After the war, he worked as a ship's surgeon on a liner bound for India, and then served in various hospitals. In 1930, his health broke down and he turned to writing as a profession. In 1931 he produced his first novel, "Hatter's Castle," which became an immediate success. He followed it with several best-selling books including "The Citadel," "The Stars Look Down," and "The Keys of the Kingdom." Once Cronin told about a colleague who gave an unusual prescription to patients afflicted with worry, fear, discouragement or self-doubt. The doctor called it his thank-you cure. "For six weeks I want you to say thank you whenever anyone does you a favor. And to show you mean it, emphasize the words with a smile." Within six weeks most of the doctor's patients showed great improvement.
Giving thanks not be a once a year event for us. It is practiced daily for all the blessings that we receive. Charles Jefferson said, "Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies." When we take a backward glace in the rearview mirror of our past all we see is the blessings of the Lord. Go ahead take this moment to glance in ours. Did you see just one face looking back? That man s face with tender eyes and a smile that lights up the universe. Did you see the face of Jesus? He has done the greatest favor by placing the sentence of death our sins demand. Salvation is found in that face. Saying thank you just doesn t seem enough, and even emphasizing it with a smile tends to fall well short. "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness" (Colossians 2:7). When we live daily living for Jesus it will produce a heart that bursts with thanksgiving. So smile dear family and shout from an overflowing heart; THANK YOU JESUS.