Throughout the years, ThanksGiving has taken on the role and theme of thankfulness, but are we losing sight of that?
Take a minute and reflect on your Thanksgiving celebration. Many spent time with families and loved ones around the table, eating turkey, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, going to a Thanksgiving Eve service at church, sharing thanks and more. That is all good, but then you turn around the next day (or now even the same day) and are pummeling each other over trying to get things that you don't have and we become taken over with greed. No, I am not saying shopping on Black Friday is bad, I'm just saying to check. No, I am not saying shopping on Black Friday is bad, I'm just saying to check yourself and be conscious of the way you behave and act towards strangers and those you know. It saddens me to look on the news and hear of a death at Wal-Mart because a worker got trampled, and a shooting at a Kohl's because of shoplifting. How are those acts showing thanks? Plus, thanksgiving isn't something we should only focus on one day but continually.
My mother and I just caught up on some awards shows the other night, and over Thanksgiving I thought about how it's the "one day" us regular Joe's get to have shout-outs of thanks on t.v., consciously choose to share thanks around the dinner table, just like when they receive their big awards on t.v. but they have to rush through their awards so fast that it doesn't always seem sincere. Do you rush around the dinner table saying thanks, so you can get onto the next activity or do you actually take time to share your thanks? It shouldn't be a quick few minute ordeal at the table, there is so much for each and every one of us to be thankful for no matter what your circumstances are, that it should take up a much larger part of your dinner table discussion. Yet we shouldn't just be thankful for a few minutes at the table and then forget about it or think about it periodically during the year.
A good character quality is being thankful and content with what you have and giving genuine thanks. If you are thankful and content with what you have it will help make like easier and be more positive as you aren't constantly complaining of what you don't have or wanting what others do have. Your thankfulness can rub off on others as well and more will become more positive and focusing on the good and what we have rather than the opposite.
Maybe you are going through the hardest trial in your life you have had to face so far, and maybe you are on the top of the world, or somewhere in-between. As a born-again Christian, wherever you are, wherever I am, we want to thank God in the good and the bad and the middle. We have so much to be thankful for. God created each one of us for a reason and a purpose and he has great things planned for every one of you. One of my favorite Christian artists recently tweeted this, and I wanted to leave it as a message to you: "If you're alive, God's not done with you yet"
I challenge you and myself to thank God everyday for the day we have, the good things He is doing for you, even the challenges that He will help you through them, and thank Him that He is there for you and will never leave or forsake you. Make it a daily challenge to constantly be praising and thanking instead of once a year on a holiday that is being overshadowed by the greed of the holiday season, which is not the point of this season at all, the point is quite the opposite. ***More on the reason for the season in a later post as it gets a little closer to CHRISTmas.
Verses to Ponder
"...give THANKS in all circumstances ; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
- 1 Thessalonians 5:18
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, through prayer and petition, with THANKSGIVING, present your requests to God."
- Philippians 4:6
"Give THANKS to the LORD for He is good, His love endures forever."
- Psalm 107:1
Praise the Lord for everything HE has given you and Have a blessed day!
- Jalynn
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