The Ghost of Thanksgiving Past
Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. And I’m willing to bet that many of us came away from the Holiday thinking, “I did it again! I did the whole Thanksgiving thing without being thankful.”
It’s easy to do. You plan to spend some time reflecting on what you have to be thankful for during the week of Thanksgiving. But then family comes to town (or you’re the family coming to town), and your routine is thrown off, and you jump right into prepping the meal, catching up with friends and family, watching football, and chasing kids. Or something goes wrong with travel, or you have to put out fires and feuds, or you use all your mental energies walking on egg shells around others.
And then like that, Thanksgiving is gone. Which means it’s now Black Friday, and you have to make sure you get all the deals on all your Christmas gifts. And then it’s Cyber Monday…and on the season goes.
So I’m writing this right after Thanksgiving for everyone who feels like they missed the boat this time around (which is a lot of us). It might sound way too early, but today is a great day to start your plan for cultivating thankfulness next Thanksgiving. AND, even more importantly, every day is a good day to start cultivating thankfulness. After all, we’re told to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess 5:18).
Why Cultivate Thankfulness?
It’s easy to want to grow in thankfulness because of the feeling it gives us. You feel better when you’re living thankfully. That’s just true. It’s hard to be angry or bitter when you’re thankful.
But thankfulness is not about reorienting our lives for our benefit. It’s about reorienting our lives to the God who gives us all our benefits (Psalm 103:2).
Here’s the reason the Bible repeatedly gives for giving thanks: “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations” (Psalm 100:5). This is the reason given in the one Psalm labeled as “A Psalm for Giving Thanks.”
The Lord is good. Our God is abundant in goodness and has poured out good things upon us.
His steadfast love endures forever. He has shown us steadfast love. From all eternity he determined to save his people through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And he protects his people their whole lives.
His faithfulness endures to all generations. God is faithful across time to generations. He shows kindness to generations and generations of people. And despite the faithlessness of his people, God remains faithful. He never gives up on his church.
This is why we should give thanks. We give thanks because of who God is. He is good, he shows steadfast love, and he is faithful. The more time we spend thinking about him and what he has done for us, the more we should naturally find ourselves growing in thankfulness. This is at the core of cultivating thankfulness.
Now, let me suggest three practical tips that have helped me cultivate thankfulness in my life.
1. Start Earlier
Often, we want to “catch lightning in a bottle” and have a great day or week of being thankful in late November of every year. But that won’t sustain our Christian life. Thankfulness should be a constant part of our lives. Paul expects Christians to give thanks “always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 5:20).
So start now. Maybe you missed last week Thursday. But today is a perfectly good time. If you follow the church calendar, Advent is a great time of year to reflect on God’s goodness and steadfast love and faithfulness in sending Jesus Christ. And if you want to use Thanksgiving as a time to especially focus on cultivating thankfulness, I recommend starting on November 1 and using the whole month.
2. Read
If you want to devote part of the year to focusing on Thankfulness, read things that draws your heart out towards God in love and thankfulness. Read and think about Bible passages that help you appreciate the gift of salvation and God’s love for you in Jesus (John 14-17 is one of these for me). Read Psalms of Thanksgiving.
Or you could read other books on thankfulness. I’ve really enjoyed this collection of 12 Sermons on Thanksgiving by CH Spurgeon. Usually I break the sermons down and read through a sermon a week for the month of November. These have been really great for me. Or there are other good books on the topic of thankfulness that you can read (like these four options).
3. Journal
Lastly, try as part of your devotional time writing down one to three things that you’re thankful for every day. This recommendation is one that you’ve probably heard people mention before, but I’ll add my voice to theirs. You don’t really grow in thankfulness without taking time to think about distinct things that you are thankful to God for.
Some days it will be hard to think of things; other days it will be easy. It might be something as small as a yummy breakfast or getting a single thing done on your to-do list. It could be as great as the love of God for you or as deep as the wisdom of God. But if you seek to Thank God for his gifts to you, you will find yourself little by little growing in thankfulness.
