It’s the time of year again where gatherings dictate our schedules and turkeys hold center stage. Our family tradition (groaning but obedient) as we share a meal, is to tell one another one thing we have been thankful for since last year. Sometimes it’s a great achievement and other times it’s a quiet clarity or revelation about life. Mostly it’s a time set aside to practice being thankful.
In a world that often forgets how to be grateful, it is our responsibility to shine a light that may inspire others. We’ve all felt the sting of ungratefulness. We do not need one more rule, law, or judgmental spirit to regulate our worlds with each other. Too often we demonstrate either the lack of common curtesy or civility with one another. If today we refused to allow ‘ugly actions’ to rule, we might break the frigid ground of distant empty lives. There is an unexplained magic when we host thankful hearts and appreciate others.
Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us, “One of the most beautiful compensations in life
is that no man can help another without helping themselves.”
Leo Buscaglia said, “We often underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
What better investment might we have for this year? Some acts of gratitude can take a lifetime, hours, or sacrificial giving, but cost us nothing financially. A grateful attitude in a word or a deed may take only a moment of our day but holds the power to change others and ourselves.
I learned long ago that I cannot make a baby smile without smiling myself. I cannot hold back the giddy anticipation of doing something loving for someone, and the joy is doubled if they are a person that perhaps doesn’t deserve the random act of love!
As Thanksgiving burst with hopeful anticipation this year, re-evaluate what old and new habits of a joyful nature we should keep or bring into existence. With renewed wisdom, I plan to use the old lessons for a new me:
- Responding beats reacting.
- Relationships matter above all else.
- If ‘it’ won’t matter in ten years, don’t invest any worry into ‘it’.
- Honesty and integrity exist even when no one is watching.
- Nagging God for the good of others is acceptable Christian behavior.
- Assume less and ask more.
- Expect more of ourselves without being unrealistic; be kinder to us.
- Everyone has a story, and it might not be pretty; be patient.
- Living with fear as the engine of the train will ruin the adventure.
- Settling for mediocrity is a coward’s way of life.
- Do something that stretches our comfort levels weekly.
- Live today as if tomorrow won’t be given.
- Given a choice, error on the side of gratitude.
In the promise of Pocahontas’s words “If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you’ll learn things you never knew you never knew. We are all connected to each other, in a circle in a hoop that never ends.”
“Three things will last forever–faith, hope, and love–and the greatest of these is love.
Let Love be your goal!”
~I Corinthians 13:13,14:1a (New Living Translation)
Happy Thanks and Giving!
