In a world where threats are seemingly constant and a country that is more divided, many Americans see a dark and bleak future. However, despite these profoundly divergent and conflicting times, we must not allow them to cause further division and strife. Instead, we must take the time to talk and to listen to one another, because it is the uniqueness of our differences that will ultimately heal, inspire, and revive America.

As a nation, we realize how exceedingly convenient and effortless the simplest acts of kindness can be. For kindness is the most important of all virtues, because without it, one cannot practice any other virtue consistently. You cannot be consistently temperate, patient or charitable without kindness. It requires that we are compassionate and empathetic, which allows us to have a mutual respect for our fellow citizen, as none of us have an immediate idea of what the other feels.

So each and every day God wakes us up — is a new day and a new opportunity to be better than we were before; another chance to realize how blessed as a nation we truly are. Just imagine, there are some who did not get a chance to try again, but for those of us who have, it is our obligation not merely to recognize this blessing, but to actualize it by being kind, temperate, and patient.

We are blessed to live in the greatest country in the world, where each of us can use our God-given talents to achieve our dreams. There is no place as unique as America, because regardless of where one comes from, all of us have the freedom to choose our destiny; for no one's future has been written yet.

America, in part, was founded on the ideas of inherent equality, compassion and the pursuit of happiness. These ideas are more freely exchanged than at any other time in human history. So with that, comes great responsibility. The responsibility to recognize that everything we have and all that we are, would not be possible without God's grace and mercy.

So despite our challenges, despite how disparate we are from one another, this Thanksgiving grants us an opportunity to come together and learn from one another. We are more alike than we are different and in the things that do make us unique, they grant us with an opportunity to find the beauty of the human soul.

So if you have an opportunity, talk to someone who is different from you, someone who may not be the same skin color or share the same ideas, because this is how we truly learn from one another. God created us all in His image, and in His abundance of love, He gave His only begotten Son.

So let us not ever take that for granted, as we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves — so that we can be a better country, a stronger nation, and a united people. Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless America.