A New Take on Giving Thanks

Good ol’ Thanksgiving.

Over the past few years I have come to recognize andappreciate the Thanksgiving holiday. Growing up it was just another reason thefamily came together to eat a delicious meal. We would spend one day on theweekend with my grand parents and my half brother who would join us at myparents house for a meal similar to that we would indulge in on Christmas. Oneother day on the weekend we would head into the big city to join in the festivefeast with my mom’s side of the family—the whole family, being many cousins,aunts, uncles and my grandparents. Both gatherings included someone sayinggrace before the meal expressing more gratitude than any other time of theyear, munching down on mashed potatoes, perogies (yum!), cabbage rolls and othergeneric celebratory meal food, topped off with the classic pumpkin pie withlarger-than-needed dollops of freshly whipped cream.

Family, food and fun… what more do you need? Thanksgivingwas just getting together with family, eating food and hanging out. The randomextra thankfulness during grace I never gave much thought to. This was how wedid thanksgiving. That’s it, that’s all.

As I get older I come to learn more about how the“Thanksgiving Sprit” needs to be included in our every breathe, every action,every moment and how we need to get real about this fact when it comes to theholiday.

We rarely come together on Thanksgiving because we are fullto the brim with thankfulness and we want to bless those closest to us withdelicious meals literally made with love. These things happen throughout theyear in expected moments that truly make us feel thankful for our manyblessings in life.  The holiday is anice, slightly forced way, to get together and make us be thankful. I guessevery now and then we need a kick in the butt to get us into gear! That shouldbe the real reason for Thanksgiving—a reminder of how we are to act every dayof every year. We shouldn’t base our lives around one day but allow the day toinfiltrate our every day lives.

Last year I had the opportunity to celebrate AmericanThanksgiving. To form a generic statement—Americans tend to take theirThanksgiving very seriously. 

*Example: I was living in a house with five othersand one gentleman in particular had a strict “no Christmas music beforeThanksgiving” rule that he was quite dedicated to (hooray for CanadianThanksgiving in October! Bring on the Christmas music!). 

I drove down theCalifornia coast to spend Thanksgiving with a co-worker and her family. We hadincredible appetizers, a traditional meal (sweet potato casserole, and othergeneric American things I’ve never had as part of the Thanksgiving meal before)and played games everyone took part in after the last bits of food were stuffedinto our already overfull bellies. The biggest part of this for me was, beforegrace was said and we devoured in minutes the meal that took hours to prepare,we all went around and said something we were thankful for—generic ‘friends andfamily’ aside. It was wonderful to hear the assorted sentiments expressed fromthe varied crowd. My pick for what to be thankful for was transportation. Iclearly remember being thankful that a friend was home for the weekend andallowed me to borrow his car to make the drive out. I was thankful for the car,for being able to drive, for flying all the place I had the opportunity to go,thankful for my bicycle back home and even walking as a mode of transportation.Taking the time to think ‘outside the box’ of the generic relationshipsentiments encouraged me to be thankful for things I otherwise forget to bethankful for.

We need to let the ‘outside the box’ thinking of what we arethankful for infiltrate our minds to become part of our daily thinking. Couldyou imagine if you took time in your exact state—right now—to be thankful forwhat is around you? I am thankful for carpenters who build sturdy chairs, I amthankful for farmers who dedicate their lives to growing and harvesting teathat is able to be transported all the way to Canada for me to sip. I amthankful for technological advances and that God has given people the talentsand passions to be developing the technology that allows me to sit on acomputer and type words people will be able to see over the Internet! I cansee, I can type, I can smell, taste, function to the best of my ability to dothings to glorify God in every moment of my life!

When it comes to the injustice surrounding us in the worldwe can be thankful that God is just and that He has put the passion in people’shearts around the world to seek justice. A favourite quote goes as follows:

 “Yes,God calls us to relieve suffering and bring about justice-- absolutely. But Godand His glory must be the driving force for this mission, not the plight ofhumanity." From Godspeed by Britt Merrick. 

With God and His glory behindour passion for justice how can we forget to be thankful for a God who loveslove and justice and restoration? I am thankful that love, justice andrestoration occur and will continue to occur until all the captives are setfree!

It is impossible to not be thankful. Literally, Impossible.

As someone with a new take on Thanksgiving, I hope you toohave found the ability to have the Thanksgiving spirit overflow into everyaspect of your every day life. Give thanks constantly and you will see how muchin your life you truly have to be thankful for.

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