Be In A Time of Thanksgiving
As the holiday season approaches, we at More Than Sundays want to wish you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving. We wanted to write a little about what giving thanks has looked like for us, and we hope it will be a blessing to you in this season. God bless you, and thank you for your readership!
As we approach Thanksgiving, we are reminded not only about being thankful but also why we are thankful. It’s easy to list what we’re thankful for and move on. However, what are we really thankful for? And why should we be thankful? Let’s really dig deep about Thanksgiving. There are love, joy, our family and friends, work promotions, and so on that we are thankful for, but what is giving thanks really about? Is it merely about being thankful for something great happening to us?
Typically this is how the world views thankfulness. In the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, they define thankfulness as, “the feeling of being happy or grateful because of something.” This perhaps means that, in order to be grateful or thankful, we must first experience something great that makes us happy. However, from a biblical standpoint, we are taught that thankfulness is something we must hold to whether something makes us sad, unhappy, or angry as this Scripture teaches us: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NIV).
Sometimes the difficulty of being thankful in horrendous moments may be too much for us to bear. I know for me, after losing my parents to cancer, it is easy to lose sight of thankfulness. I just lost both my parents in a four-year span before I even reached my forties; I wasn’t in a state of thankfulness for losing the two people who knew me better than anyone, who each carried every single moment of my childhood. Not too long ago, I also lost my eighteen-year-old niece who was due to graduate high school with an art scholarship. It can become quite a bitter time thinking about her because she was so young and she still had so much to live for. But through all this, God was faithful to help me realize that there is still thankfulness in such grief and sorrow. I’m thankful for my parents. I’m thankful I was raised in a home with two parents when not many children are blessed with that. I’m thankful for what my parents taught me, and most of all, I’m thankful they’re no longer in pain. As for my niece, I’m thankful for the eighteen years God allowed us to have her, to love her, and to be loved by her. God teaches us that even in our darkest moments, there is still plenty of room for thankfulness. I can’t remember where I read this, but I remember reading it a few years ago: “Gratitude doesn’t come naturally, but with practice and intentionality, we can better appreciate all of the good things God has given us.” We truly need God’s guidance and His love to reach a state of constant thankfulness.
When I think about Thanksgiving, I also think about the Scripture where it says that we should “…always [be] giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20, NIV). In today’s culture, it is such a radical idea to give thanks to God for everything even during times of sorrow and pain because the world is so focused on only being thankful for the things we want rather than the things we already have. Even the book Philosophies of Gratitude states that gratitude is “a way we react to people in our lives sometimes for who they are (lovable or trustworthy) and sometimes for what they do (act benevolent towards us)” (Rushdy). However, as followers of Christ, we are called to accept and be thankful even for those who are difficult to love and even for those who have treated us poorly. I’m thankful God has improved the way I love by bringing people in my path who are difficult to love. I’m thankful God improved my patience and the way I treat others by bringing difficult people into my path. We are called to be thankful for everything. In everything, “’Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and
proclaim that his name is exalted” (Isaiah 12:4, NIV).
So, as we enter Thanksgiving may we remember why we are thankful. We are thankful for God, our Heavenly Father, because He gave His only Son so that we could be saved. Because of the blood of Jesus, we aren’t to be afraid or in despair: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Phillippians 4:6, NIV).
May each of you have a fabulous Thanksgiving with the people God put in your lives to love and cherish.
References:
Rushdy, Ashraf H. A., Philosophies of Gratitude (New York, 2020; online edn, Oxford Academic, 19 Nov. 2020), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197526866.001.0001, accessed 14 Nov. 2023.