Thanksgiving Every Day

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Thanksgiving 2012 is now past, and just like every other once a year event, the next day brings the start of another 365 days until the holiday is celebrated again.  But with Thanksgiving we shouldn't wait until next year to be thankful.  Giving thanks is something we  should be doing countless times every day.  Many are the moments in a day for which we ought to be thankful to God, no matter what our current circumstances are.  But we typically are not a thankful people.  I know for a fact  that the area of 'thankfulness' is one chamber of my heart that the Lord trying to enter into as He is teaching me about living in His presence and His peace.  You see, without an actively thankful lifestyle, we can never truly experience the peace we all long for.

It is interesting to me that in America we celebrate Thanksgiving, the season of thankfulness,  just prior to Christmas, the season of peace and joy.  This particular order seems to perfectly align itself with precept that thankful hearts lead to peaceful and joy-filled hearts.  But in America we have 'traditional-ized' the day that follows Thanksgiving as Black Friday, the day in which we are no longer thankful for that with which we have been blessed.  Instead, beginning in the mid-evening of Thanksgiving Day, we jump in our cars and drive very quickly to every store that is offering us its big sales.  On Thanksgiving Day we are often caught talking out of both sides of our mouths, saying on the one hand, "We are so thankful for and blessed by everything we have," while on the other side of our mouths we can be seen by others, loudly proclaiming by our actions, "MORE!!!  MORE!!!  We must have MORE!"

On this day after Thanksgiving 2012, in my personal walk with the Lord (as I read through Jesus Calling by Sarah Young), I am challenged, not by prospect of gaining for my loved ones the perfect gifts to give them for Christmas, purchased at the Black Friday price; I am challenged by my Lord to see the beautiful flowers that He has placed along my path this very day, flowers that reveal His love, provision, protection, mercy, and grace.  The goal of this day, this day that I personally refuse to refer to as Black Friday, is to recognize the red roses of love that the Lord has planted for me today, to pick those roses, one by one, and to gather them into a beautiful bouquet that I can present to the Lord at the end of this day. This is the life of a thankful-hearted person who is grateful for the Lord, for all He is and all He has done.  This is Thanksgiving every day.

The world's Black Friday, the pushing and shoving, the needing to be victorious in our Christmas purchasing, the selfish attitudes, and the "me" mentality is like a 4-D sonogram picture of the heart of our nation.  As my family proceeds to the Holy Celebration of the Birth of Christ, we are choosing to do without, to share more with others to make their Christmas brighter, and not buy into the trappings of the newest, must-have rages this year.  We are choosing simplicity.  I personally am choosing to make several "thankful posts" a day on God's Heart-wall for God alone to see.  I want to give HIM the greatest gift this year, my grateful heart that will bless Him.  And I desire to do that everyday so that Thanksgiving 2013 will simply be the culmination of a year of thankfulness.

Will you join me in this rage?  Will you storm the doors of heaven this year by blessing God over and over for His blessings to you?