Are You Thankful More Than One Day a Year?

Thursday is Thanksgiving, which brings to mind turkey and trimmings and pumpkin pie, football games, and family gatherings. It’s also the time of year where everyone’s thoughts turn to being thankful. At some of our past family Thanksgiving dinners we’ve gone around the table to share what each of us was thankful for that year. Our kids (and even Joe, I think) thought it was lame, but I loved hearing those thankful thoughts. Now it’s just the two of us, and our tradition over the past few years has been to go out to dinner on Thanksgiving. I may love this tradition even more than I loved hearing our thankful thoughts around the table! I love that Thanksgiving is no longer stressful—all that cooking and cleaning up. But Joe does miss the leftovers, and we both miss having a crowd around our table.

Since there won’t be kids at home sharing thankful thoughts on Thursday, I wanted to take some time to think about all that makes me thankful this year.

T: I’m thankful for the TIME I have every morning to wake up and spend the first hour, or sometimes two, with a cup of coffee and Jesus.

H: I’m thankful for a HOME that is warm in winter and cool in summer and only twenty minutes from having my toes in the sand at the beach.

A: I’m thankful for Vox Dei Publishing and their belief in me and my story, allowing me to call myself AUTHOR.

N: I’m thankful that my days often include time to take NAPS when I need them.

K: I’m thankful for our twin gray KITTENS who sleep snuggled up—one on each side of me—at night, and for Abby, too, who loves me like only a dog can.

F: I’m thankful for my healthy and happy FAMILY.

U: I’m thankful for the UNCONDITIONAL love God showers on me daily.

L: I’m thankful for a miraculous God-given heart transplant that’s helping me to LOVE more and more like he wants me to.

Next year, I’d like to spend more than one day thinking about being thankful. To help me, I’m going to create a “Jar of Thanks.” Beginning on New Year’s, at the end of each day, I’ll jot down something from the day for which I’m thankful and put it into my empty Jar of Thanks. On Thanksgiving Day 2016, I’ll have more than three hundred thankful thoughts to read through and remember. But even more important, I’ll have spent a few minutes at the end of each day giving thanks.

And there you have it! I hope my list inspires you to spend some time thinking about all you have to be THANKFUL for and maybe creating a Jar of Thanks of your own.

“Thanksgiving is the gateway to life, joy, obedience, perspective, hope, victory, friendship with God, and more than we dream. …Choose life, open your eye’s to God’s goodness, and say, ‘Thank you!’”   ~Max Lucado