Thanksgiving was coming. I was a busy mom to a three-year-old and a one-year-old boy. Because we lived far from family at the time, my husband, trying to help me out, suggested we go out for Thanksgiving dinner. My first thought was “Of course not!” Growing up, I had always had big holiday dinners with extended family, and I wanted to start that tradition with my family. But as the day approached, I realized maybe going out this year was for the best.
So we went to a popular family restaurant. We had to wait quite a while to be seated because of the crowds, but the boys were behaving, and I thought maybe this wasn’t so bad, and there won’t be any food to put away or dishes to do. We ordered our meals and started eating. Our three-year-old finished first and was standing up in the booth, looking over at the kind older couple eating in the booth behind us.
And then it happened. Our son was sick, to use a nicer word. All over everything. Our table, the booth, and the booth of the couple behind us. We were mortified. He had shown no signs of not feeling well, and in fact, ate just fine (which contributed to the problem). The staff brought us piles of napkins, but there was no fixing this. We packed everything up and headed home.
Earlier today, I saw a list of books that are “guaranteed to inspire thankfulness every day.” I looked at a few of them; they were alike in many ways. The authors encouraged readers to practice gratitude daily, look on the bright side of events, and focus on and think about the good parts of your day. They provided journaling exercises and specific phrases to repeat to help instill gratitude.
To me, the books all seemed to promote forced gratitude, kind of a “fake it till we make it” proposition. Some days, maybe we need that, but I think if we remembered, really remembered, where everything we have comes from, it might not be so hard to feel thankful. The Bible tells us that every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above (James 1:17).
Every good thing is from God. If we tried to make a list of literally everything good in our lives, it would take the rest of the day. Yes, we have bad days and sad things happen, but if you know God, you have a lifelong comforting friend, the ability to be heard by the Creator of the universe, and the hope of knowing you have no more fear of death.
Was I thankful that Thanksgiving we tried to go out for dinner? I’m not sure: I still cringe at the memory. But I know I could have and should have been. Thankfulness isn’t just for perfect meals or perfect days. We have so many blessings, and even just the basics – place to live, food, family and friends, clothes – all come from God. But as good as all our blessings are, the apostle Paul said he counted everything he had as garbage for the sake of Christ. All the things he could have valued, he threw away so that he could have Jesus. He knew the value of what God did for him, and everything else was nothing next to that.
If you know that for yourself, it does not matter what you eat for dinner. It won’t even matter if your kid gets sick all over everything and everyone. Knowing the worth of Jesus will overwhelm you with gratitude and make every day Thanksgiving Day.
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God bless you. Stay hopeful! ❤️
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