"Give Thanks"

Thanksgiving is not something that comes naturally. I have never heard of a child for whom their first word was "Thank you." That was certainly not the case for my children. No, children have to be taught to give thanks. And so parents, like a broken record, say to his or her young child, "What do you say?" and then the child looks at the parent as though they are from a different planet, speaking a different language and the parents ask again, "What do you say?" Then to save both themselves and their child from further embarrassment, the parents prompt the child with, "Say,'Thank you'." Finally...hopefully...the little one, at least, pretends to mean it when he or she says,"thank you," right before dashing off to the next item on his or her little agenda.

The point is thanksgiving is something we must learn, if we are to learn it at all. In fact, I think it is something that we adults must continually learn and re-learn as we make this journey called life.

You can always tell the difference between the folks who have learned to put thanksgiving into practice and those who have not. Those who have are not optimistic, they are realistic...they see the difficulty and pain of life, but they never loose sight of all the reasons they have to give thanks no matter how small those reasons might seem to others. Thankful people are incredibly resilient people because instead of seeing every challenge as the end of the world, they maintain a perspective that there is more to life than this new problem. Thankful people are just more pleasant to be around...when you leave them you feel like you have been filled up rather than having had the last drop of life sucked out of you.

But again, thanksgiving is something we learn. Regardless of your personality or your present life situation, thanksgiving is something we can learn. In fact, as followers of Jesus, it is something we are commanded to learn. I Thessalonians 5:18 says, "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." It does not say give thanks "FOR", but "IN" all circumstances. This is something we can learn to do and we are given good reason to learn it..."this is God's will for you." If you have any kind of genuine relationship with Jesus at all then you know that God's will is not to make you miserable. Jesus said God's will is that we might have life and life abundant. Therefore, the command to learn thanksgiving is one of the keys that unlocks God's promise of abundant life in our lives.

I am grateful that we live in one of two countries in the world that have Thanksgiving as a holiday. Once a year, we are specifically and intentionally reminded that thanksgiving is something for which is worth stopping everything! I encourage you, brother and sister in Christ, re-learn to give thanks this thanksgiving...Be intentional about it...Be out loud about it...Make it personal... Make it real. "Give thanks for the Lord is good", Psalm 136:1.