Thanksgiving Everyday
As we approach Thanksgiving Day this week I would like to just take a few moments to point out that we should be thankful everyday, not just one day of the year, and while it is implied, it is not expected to be forever thankful for everything we are blessed with just once a year. I know that I have a wonderful life, despite the suffering in the world, the pain, hardship and disappointment, I am truly blessed. I believe that gratitude for these gifts is something that I didn't fully understand when I was younger, but I do believe now that being thankful and grateful for all we have is a choice each of us make, and so I hope each of you will choose to be grateful and share that with others. Gratitude helps us to experience every wonderful thing in our life to the fullest extent, and it also helps us to endure the harder things life throws at us. Gratitude helps us approach life as a race, preparing, training, and stepping out as we face our marathon of life.
Gratitude takes discipline and reminding ourselves the many reasons we have to be thankful and grateful. I challenge each of you to sit and write down a list of the things you are thankful for, think hard if they don't come easy, as many will feel a sense of entitlement, and ingratitude when in fact it should be a very easy list to compile. Attitude is part of what makes us grateful, and ungrateful, that and choices. Let us remember the heart of Thanksgiving, it is not the football, it is not even the turkey, it is the heart of family, the gratitude of life's greatest joys, it is you being truly thankful and gracious for your gifts. I created my list, it has obvious gratitude for my health, my family, my work, my online friends and those who at least read what I post. I am thankful for the music, books, and movies that inspire me, make me laugh, help me to appreciate art and provide time for my brain to shut off sometimes. I am truly thankful for grace, for a love that I can't explain and for a story that is still being written.
What is the history of Thanksgiving, the tradition that the Pilgrims started in 1621? President George Washington declared it a national day of thanksgiving in 1789, and in the Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863 President Abraham Lincoln set apart the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and praise. However it wasn't until 1939 when we had a five Thursday November that President Roosevelt established the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day. There are places that celebrate their Thanksgiving on other days, but for us it is established and on that day we give gratitude for God's blessings. Now one thing we should all remember on this thankful time is that we need to include a lot of folks on that list. The season allows us to say thanks to so many people in our lives that touch us with blessings every day. There are many people in our lives that should hear from us how thankful we are that we know them, that they have touched our lives in many ways.
If you sit down and write a short note, make a phone call, send an email, or a text, but show that you are grateful for them in some small way. Thank you for the beautiful weather, thank you for every moment of every day that I can walk, talk, and live. We get so caught up in our lives that we forget to live, we forget to see all the blessings, all the gracious gifts that we have in front of us. Make the list, take the challenge, maybe it will help you as it has me to see how wonderful my life is, how truly thankful I am, how I could never have known what treasures my life would hold. We have all had good times and bad times this year, we have lost someone close to us, we have others who have entered our life, but through it all we have strength through our family, our friends, ourselves. Thank you all for being a part of my life, and may you have a blessed and beautiful Thanksgiving.