A Day of Thanksgiving?

I was asked a couple of days ago about what I would be blogging about this week. I said today’s post would be about the U.S. Thanksgiving Holiday. I was then asked why not just post that on Thursday, which is of course actually Thanksgiving day in the U.S.

That very question speaks to the premise of this post.

That question might seem to indicate that we are thankful one day a year, or at the very least it indicates that we only stop to “thankfully reflect” one day a year. That really doesn’t make sense when you think about it.

Now I love all the traditions around Thanksgiving, I even love fighting the hordes for bargains on Black Friday. I over eat along with the majority of Americans, watch some football, and have too much whipped cream on my Pumpkin Pie. Somewhere along the line of course we, at least some, stop eating long enough to be thankful. For a day.

Then it’s back to taking way way too much stuff for granted. Now, I’m not just throwing rocks at other people, I’m throwing them at myself too. I’m just as guilty as anyone else.

If you live in the United States you have so much to be grateful for. You truly live in the land of opportunity, virtually nothing is out of reach. (Actually, if makes no difference where you live, if you look hard enough you can find at least a ray of hope)

Okay, okay, it’s about here that some, perhaps many, of you are already thinking “what a crock,” doesn’t this idiot know how tough things are… Yes I know. I also know that on our worst day life is still pretty darn good, especially when compared to the struggles of much of the world.

When we focus on what’s wrong it causes us to miss most of what’s right. On any given day we have much more to be thankful for than we have to complain about but we choose to focus on the negative. One day a year we choose to look past the bad and be thankful for the good.

I wonder why we focus so little of our time on finding things and people to be thankful for. Is it because we measure our lives in years and there’s always next year? What if we measured our lives in days?

I have worked at the same company for over 18 years. Does that seem like a lot? How about this, I’ve really worked there for 6762 days. 9,737,280 minutes, 584,236,800 seconds. Now I’m sure not all of the seconds and minutes were good but I can pretty much guarantee that something good happened on each one of those 6762 days.

I can also pretty much guarantee that I have failed to be grateful for each one of my 6762 days of employment. I’m also sure that I’ve had something to be thankful for each of the 21,756 days of my life but I’ve only “officially” stopped for 59 of those days to give thanks.

That’s just not right. So join me in the coming seconds, minutes, days and years to stop everyday, every single day, to be grateful, to focus on the good things and good people that surround you.

I’ll bet that when we put in the effort to find the good we’ll discover that it doesn’t take much effort at all, it just takes a choice!

6 thoughts on “A Day of Thanksgiving?

  1. Excellent message. Gratitude is both altitude and latitude. You grow taller and therefore can see farther to help others with their vision. We have much to be thankful for.

  2. AWESOME reads Steve!!!…. all of em!!!……… I am so reminded, we cant even fathom or understand the level of the unconditional LOVE of God… the level at which He loves…. we struggle to comprehend the blessings He gives to ALL of us, no matter our individual circumstances….

    We all have circumstances and challenges….. even the most wealthy have robust struggles in the heart and life…. and the poorest have the same struggles and in an earthly sense, what seems to be more…

    Yet, we ALL live right in unbelievable and unfathomable love and blessing…

    God’s universal ocean of love…. how does our mere teardrop of love even compare…. can it?… Will it ever?….

    We can only desire to please Him by being this love… trying our hardest by loving Him first to truly be the same love, and actually love…. doing the best we can as broken servants to the One who truly loves unconditionally….

    We tend all too often as human beings to have boundaries with our love…expectations…. therefore we often lack gratirude and greatfulness…. thankfulness….. thankfulness for tough circumstance…. we dont surrender and love Him through it… we beg for more love!!!

    .. We MUST try and remain in constant thankfulness for the lives we have, for each breath….. for the lights we have been givin to shine of Him in our circumstance,,,…no matter what it may be….as its His plan of hope to the others…….

    For it is by grace and grace alone we are even breathing and had first breath!!…. Grace born of unfathomable love!!!!! ….This IS hope….the hope for all!!!!….

    we MUST strive to live in constant thankfulness and gratitude!!! to live in LOVE………

    We must…. to shine that hope to the others!!!

    Thankyou for you page and friends…. dig it!!!

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