Being Thankful Every Day

The holiday season is a special time of year for a lot of people. It's the time of year for spending time with family, eating awesome food, decorations, celebration, festivities, activities, Christmas shopping, more eating awesome food, sharing in the "Christmas Spirit,"  being especially giving/charitable, being thankful, and the list goes on.

From that list, I want to focus in on the "being especially giving/charitable and thankful" part, both of which I am in full agreement.  We must remember that the holiday seasons can be really tough for many people, certainly those without food and shelter during these cold winter months.

For those called to love God and love people, Christians should really seek to be examples of servanthood. I think it is really cool and meaningful that my local church has a tradition the Sunday after Thanksgiving to share testimonies of thankfulness to God during the service. Like last year, this year's service was meaningful, and I was encouraged, but it also made me realize how much I take for granted every day. So, where is my thankfulness? I might say to myself, "Okay, I need to be more thankful every day," but that doesn't work very well. In fact, if you try it, then you will realize that it's really hard. REALLY hard. The same is often true for thankfulness' counterpart, complaining. Lately, I've been trying to watch what I say and to make sure that I'm not complaining, but it seems harder when you're actively trying not to complain. Honestly, I need for Jesus to fight more of the battles for me. Also, if I just focus on being thankful in all circumstances, the complaining has no place to come in and wreak havoc. 

The following is a great verse, but it is difficult to consistently obey:

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

(1 Thessalonians 5:12-18 ESV)

I've been realizing that thankfulness is really a profound concept the more I meditate on it, and, in fact, the Bible has a lot to say about it. One good way to cultivate thankfulness is to remember what God has done, either in your life or in the lives of others. Let that be a healthy challenge to you. I would encourage you to think about ways that your are thankful or want to be thankful in your life. Use them to build up others.

p.s. The following video illustrates an aspect of what I mean regarding being thankful. Actually, all of the videos on this website are encouraging and powerful testimonies (www.iamsecond.com)

Sincerely,

Jimmy