Thankful

I was going to wait until the week of Thanksgiving to write my annual "I am thankful for" post. But decided to go ahead and write now so that I can be in a thankful mindset this whole season instead.

My mother is what I like to call "Positive Polly." She would always make us tell her 5 positive things about our day or 5 things we are thankful for. I would tell her the cliche answers. "I have a home, I have good parents, I have food." Well, some days I just did NOT want to tell her, nor could I even think of, 5 positive things! But I see now the point she was trying to get across.

Now, I am not saying that you are a terrible person if you've ever complained or not been in a thankful mood. Sometimes life just sucks. We don't get our way. Tragedy strikes. We fail. We lose people. We get depressed or lonely. The Bible even says in Ecclesiates 3 "There is a time for everything...a time to weep...a time to mourn." I don't think we would be honest with ourselves to not hurt and be angry sometimes with the way that life happens. Sure...take the time to weep and mourn and be mad and grumpy.

However...

“To say we feel grateful is not to say that everything in our lives is necessarily great. It just means we are aware of our blessings.” -Dr. Emmons

I have realized here in the last 2 or 3 years how very life changing it can be to have a thankful heart.

I heard somewhere that being thankful means learning to live your life like everything is a miracle. It is a continuous process of being aware of what you've been given. A funny thing happens when you practice thankfulness. Thankfulness depletes pride. Suddenly your life does not revolve around what you want or what you think you deserve or what you don't have. It turns into an acknowledgement of even the simplest things in life that we DO NOT deserve.

I do not know how we ever got to a point where we think we deserve all that we do have. I think back to the cliche answers I gave my mom as a child. "I have a home. I have food." That meant nothing when I said it, because I guess I thought I deserved to eat and be sheltered and did not realize how food and shelter is a rarity to some. I also did not know this little tid-bit of scripture at the time...

"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." -Luke 12:48

The Message Bible says, "Great gifts means great responsibilities."

Everything God gives us is for us to give away and share with others. Not to hoard.

As we approach this Thanksgiving and Christmas season, practice bringing thankfulness to your experiences, instead of waiting for a good experience to make you thankful.