It's late on Thanksgiving, everyone is either full of sleep-inducing turkey or is sleep deprived on Friday after Black Friday shopping, so we'll keep this brief.
Thankfulness. All month my Facebook feed has had the traditional "30 days of thanksgiving" posts with everyone outlining why they are thankful this year. It's a sweet sentiment and I will fight every sarcastic and cynical bone in my body by NOT making fun of it.
There is actually something I really like about everyone sharing 30 things to be thankful for: it causes everyone to not only be thankful for a single thing or moment, but to begin living in a state of thankfulness. At first people mention easy things like a new job or new house, but once you hit day 15 or 16 you're really starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel by mentioning lifestyle things you can be thankful for. This is a good thing and more of us should feel this way, especially if we live by the spirit.
Indeed, everything is for your benefit so that, as grace extends through more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 4:15)
Thankfulness always comes from a place of recognizing those things which we don't necessarily "have to have" or for circumstances ending up differently than they may have otherwise been. As a believer in the Judeo-Christian faith, we understand that we are "owed" nothing. God has provided his blessings to us time and time again just for us to do our own thing, treat people as we shouldn't, and to ignore the wisdom God shares through his gospels and through each other. Yet, God has blessed us all. I look at the names on this e-mail and I see individuals with new homes, those with families which have been through stressful moments but are still holding, children who have grown and matured and new family additions coming and yet to come... we are all testimonies of God's goodness and graciousness.
When we stop and show thankfulness, we acknowledge that things may have been different but God's greatness gave us what we didn't deserve... we are thankful. And when we acknowledge that thankfulness, we are glorifying God.
Be thankful! We have so much to be thankful for and so much more that I am sure we will be thankful for next year!
DAILY PRAYER A Prayer for Thanksgiving Thank you God for the blessings you have shown us. Your goodness and grace shows itself every single day when we look at our loved ones, wake up safe in our homes, and are able to enjoy the company of one another. We pray that you continue to show your grace to us and remind us that it is you who gives us all the blessings we regularly enjoy. Thank you for all we have and give us opportunities to share those blessings with those around us, whether they are a close friend or a complete stranger. Amen.
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