Giving Thanks for People Who Have Influenced Us

Gracious God, thank you for the people who have influenced our lives:

• For our families—for parents, for spouses and children, for grandparents and aunts.
• For other families who welcome us in and for church families who help us feel we belong and show us grace.
• For writers—of scripture and of works since then that help us understand and express our faith.
• For therapists and priests and pastors.
• For teachers and mentors and heroes.
• For those who’ve offered us gifts of grace and music and unconditional love.
• And for those who have taught us how to live, how to understand ourselves, and how to stand up for others.

For all these and others who’ve influenced our lives, we give thanks. Amen.