Thanksgiving …. A New Perspective

Somehow I think we forget that we should give thanks daily, it is truly highlighted on Thanksgiving in America or really the month of November.  This year when I woke up on Thanksgiving Day, I was full to overflowing with Thankfulness. Yet, somehow throughout the day, negative thoughts tried to overshadow my thankfulness and even joy. Because it was a day to give thanks I fought for the thoughts and places of thankfulness and discarded the negative thoughts.  Yet, on others days I don’t always fight to find what I can be thankful for, it is as if the task feels impossible. I believe it is because so often we are looking for the big things to be thankful for. 

Earlier this month a friend of mine posted on her Instagram Story asking people what they were thankful for. At that moment it was easy for me to answer, I was thankful to be able to breathe, to be alive, and to be able to walk. You see I was recently very sick and in the hospital for an extended period of time. For the first twelve or so days of that time, I was in a  heavily sedated state. I was told by my brother that some days there was no progress, and honestly, when I came into the hospital I did not realize just how bad it already was. When I woke up it took a few days for the fog to clear. But the first time I wanted to just move and realized that my entire body felt like a dead weight I sort of internally panicked. But, then I just began to pray, and thank God, not for my physical well-being but for all those taking care of me.  There were nurse aides, nurses, doctors, just people walking by that would wave. I began to be thankful to see the sunrise in the morning. I remember the first time I was given water in the hospital, I was so thankful. 

Psalm 100:3-5  says; “Know, perceive, recognize, and understand with approval that the Lord is God! It is HE who has made us, not we ourselves, and we are His! We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good and his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” As I read this scripture it is clear that thankfulness should be a part of our everyday praise and mindset. Even if we are just reminding our heart and mind, that he loves us and that he is faithful. That is more than enough to be thankful for.

I think every day should be thanksgiving, not the food part of course, but the part where we find the pieces of our day to be thankful for and offer that thankfulness up to God. I’m thankful that every day my walking gets stronger, that I have breath in my lungs, and I am surrounded by friends and family that love me. But, I am most thankful for God who never left me when I was in the hospital, who fought for me when I didn’t know how to fight for myself. I hope you will take some time to sit and really look at what you have to be thankful for, and remember it doesn’t have to be grand and if you can’t yet see those things, be thankful that God is faithful.