I asked Shane Ophus, “How do you approach life so you can be thankful every day”?

Shane responds, “Well, it’s not easy. Sometimes, you have to concentrate on it.” However, just that morning, Shane told me he had read in his study bible,”’Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. The note for that verse in my study bible says, ‘Our joy, prayers, and thankfulness should not fluctuate with our circumstances or feelings. Obeying these three commands, rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks often goes against our natural inclinations. When we make a conscious decision to do what God says, however, we will begin to see people in a new perspective, and we will have an easier time being joyful and thankful.’ That’s a good note.”

Shane struggled this summer with an issue in his eye and had to have surgery. His eyesight still isn’t back completely, and the health scare made him appreciate what he has. He loves his family, his business, and his community. Grandchildren are incredible, too. “It’s the best.”

“I think the things that we take for granted, like living in Montana, living in Big Sandy where we have a low crime rate and we have reasonably good weather.” And we laughed.

So, what else about thankfulness? “I think it has to be a habit. You have to make it a habit by not dwelling on the negative. Well, you’re never going to when you’re looking at the ground; you’re never going to see the sunrise or the sunset if you’ve just got your head down, looking down and feeling sorry for yourself.”

“I mean, still in America, you could be a millionaire easily. You could get out of high school, start work for somebody, learn how to do it, and buy the right machinery.” He believes in the American dream. But it starts with hard work. He talked about his dad instilling a good work ethic. He just never gave up.” Shane is from a big family. He is the oldest of 11 brothers and sisters, graduating from Big Sandy High School in 1979. “I’m sure my class would have voted that I was least likely to succeed.”

Shane has an interesting philosophy, “If I were the president, I’d pass a new law that everybody, every fat kid, skinny kid, ugly kid, rich kid, poor kid would have to go do two years in the service?” Would you make it mandatory? “There would be no question, and then they would get away from Mama. And they would realize that holy hell how good I have it. I mean, even if you were a kid in Chicago, the worst side, if you went to Afghanistan, you would say oh, man, I can’t wait to get back to Chicago. I mean, it would be so enlightening. And then you would be thankful. Because you would see what the rest of the world is really like.”

He believes we all just need to realize what we have. “Well, so I’m thankful for our little town. I’m thankful for our grocery store. I’m thankful for our newspaper. I mean, we have a lot of good things, really.”