Thanksgiving

According to Wikipedia — Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada, the United States, some of the Caribbean islands, and Liberia. It began as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.

Thanksgiving Day is many things to different families.  Marcie from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving says, “But Thanksgiving is more than eating, Chuck. We should just be thankful for being together. I think that's what they mean by 'Thanksgiving,' Charlie Brown.”  So true!

Q: What are you grateful for today?  The typical Thanksgiving question… what about the flip-side?

Q: What will you have at the end of the day if everything is taken away from you which you are ungrateful for?

Ever really thought about that? Just think about it, if you weren’t thankful for something today, what all would be taken away? Your home, your family, friends, job, your ability to walk, your wisdom, your knowledge… basically everything. Ever heard of that story where there used to be a King, but he turned into a cocky person who used to mock everyone. Because of arrogance and ignorance, he lost everything and became pauper. So be genuinely grateful for every little thing. Sometimes we only realize how blessed and rich we are only when we see someone underprivileged. We need to take on that attitude every day and not compare ourselves to others. We are richly blessed in the USA.

So, what happens if we forget to be grateful? We loose a natural balance of well-being really.  We take things, people and our abilities for granted.  Taking another person for granted may be another reason why we omit to express gratitude. We may not feel guilty of not expressing gratitude and it may have seemed unimportant at the time to give someone appreciation for an every day contribution.  Like your mom washing your clothes when you are little, or your dad going to work to provide a roof over your head, food and safety. 

We may feel ashamed or guilty about not expressing gratitude when it was due. We might have felt the moment had passed and the opportunity to publicly thank mom or dad would never return.  The lovely thing about integrity though is that it is not about always acting as we feel we should. Integrity is about acknowledging when we have gone off track and getting back on track again by taking appropriate action.  The only way to gain integrity is to contact that person you took for granted and offer them your sincere gratitude. Hindsight gives us wisdom, it is never too late to go back and thank those that shaped us, helped us and where there for us.

I use “Thank You” a lot. Why? Because I genuinely feel grateful for every single thing. Right now, I am grateful that I am able to write and share blog posts with you, and I’ve got this amazing platform to share, my website, my business.   

I urge and invite you to start your day being grateful for “This day”. If you’ve time right now, please make a list of at least 30 Things which you are grateful for.

Your eyes which enable you to see this beautiful world, your ears so that you hear all the sweet and chirpy sounds, your tongue that lets you communicate your feelings, your legs because how’d walk without them? The list goes on and on my dear friends!

Say out loud…
Thank You God for my Family!
Thank You for my church family!
Thank You Jesus for my Healthy Body!

Keep going!! And at last, I want you to feel it and say “Thank You!!! Thank You!!! Thank You Lord for everything!!!”