ThanksLiving

Faith

It’s a season of thanksgiving and many are posting on Facebook what they’re thankful for each day.  I haven’t had the time to sit down and do that every day, but I am pondering this…

Does this conscious attempt to be thankful contribute to the general sense of joy we feel through the holidays?  I believe that a thankful heart is a happy heart, so it appears appropriate that this holiday precedes Christmas!

For me, having a grateful attitude is something I have learned to keep at the forefront of my thinking.  ( For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” Proverbs 23:7 )  Pride says, “You don’t deserve this!”, “You deserve better!”, or “This isn’t fair!”  Humility says, “Everything I have, every day that I’m given, is a gift from God.” Every day of my life I can choose to be thankful–or not.  On the “good” days we know that it’s not so hard, but I can also choose to be thankful in the difficult days–focusing on my blessings instead of my problems. I recently heard it said that, as believers, it’s in the difficult days that we are drawn more closely to our Heavenly Father; and when our focus is more intently on Him, we see ourselves and our situation more clearly– from His perspective.  We never want those troublesome days to come, but when they do, (and they will!) we can treasure the opportunity to lean on our Heavenly Father.

We recently lost a beloved family member and the coming holidays will be bittersweet.  Though our hearts are missing him dearly, we are drawn even closer to our family and our Lord.  Our days will be lived in thankfulness, we will count our blessings, and our holidays will be celebrated with even more deliberateness.