Thanksgiving

I'm not going to lie, I have not been excited about the upcoming holidays. Thanksgiving only appeared to me as a hurdle, trying to figure out how to overcome my need to do homework in the midst of family festivities, in a house without internet, and when I was going to work on my group project with my group mates. Christmas won't be like it has in the past... our family will be scattered around the south east, and my grandma's dementia makes it really hard to be around her - it makes me sad and I miss her. And having Christmas dinner in the cafeteria of my grandma's assisted living home didn't really sound like a cheery Christmas day to me. I was in the mood to just skip to New Years Eve and move on. But God has been opening my heart the last few days. 

Hearing Jim Keller's sermon on thanksgiving in relation to Luke 17:11-19, God used another's words to speak to me, when I was avoiding listening to His voice. He stressed the importance of realizing the difference between the feeling of gratitude and the action of thanksgiving. Unless your gratitude moves you to action, it really doesn't have much worth behind it. I realized that my gratitude to God for the blessings he's placed in my life didn't mean much, because it wasn't moving me to action. My attitude has recently been one of negativity, and pessimism comes more naturally to me. But I have the ability to change that, by changing my actions. 

If I'm scared and uncomfortable being around my grandmother, now that her dementia is progressing to a more serious stage, those feelings aren't going to go away unless I face them, find reasons to be thankful for her and the rest of my family, and remember that she is still the woman I have loved my whole life. That she is still here is something to truly be thankful for - so instead of spending my day off tomorrow wasting my time at home, I am facing my fears and going to visit her with my mom. 

Lately I've allowed my negativity and pessimism to allow me to forget all that God has provided in my life, to forget that I have things to be thankful for each and every day. This week, as we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday set aside to give thanks to our Creator for all He has provided, it's important to realize that we should not let this spirt of thanks stay just in the holiday season. It should eminate throughout our lives, because as followers of Christ we are called to a new life and a different life - a life of praise and thanks. I know from experience it is hard to be thankful during the rough times... extremely hard. But if we can make that effort, if we can find even one thing to sincerely praise God for in each day, then maybe the rough times won't be so rough. 

-- Sarah Howell