Nowadays we have problems remembering to be thankful for
what we have. That could be for many reasons: we advertise for Christmas and
skip Thanksgiving, after Halloween we want to start making wish lists, we are
not happy with what we have etc.
At the beginning of November I took it upon myself to do a challenge. Each day in November I chose one thing or event from a category and was thankful for that. I called it the thankfulness challenge.
For this challenge I thought of different categories of things people could be thankful for. Then I organized them into 30 days. I came up with rules like: each day you had to say the thing you were thankful for to one person, you had to say why you were thankful for that thing, and you had to thank God for that thing/person.
I'm not quite done with this challenge yet but there are a few things I discovered already. First I realized how hard it was to pick one thing or person in each category. For example, one day I had to say a hobby I was thankful for. I have many hobbies that I'm thankful for, for different reasons. I discovered when I focused on the thing I was thankful for the problems of the day didn't seem to be as big of a deal. Finally, I discovered when I told others what or who I was thankful for it got them thinking about what they are thankful for as well.
Think about it: do you have a lot to be thankful for? If you had to choose one family member, friend, possession, etc. To be thankful for would you only be able to choose one? I encourage you to really think about what you have to be thankful for. Don't just think of tangible things or good things. I'm sure you've had problems in your life that you may not have liked at the time, but they helped change you for the better. Are you thankful for those problems? Will you give thanks to God for all you have?
At the beginning of November I took it upon myself to do a challenge. Each day in November I chose one thing or event from a category and was thankful for that. I called it the thankfulness challenge.
For this challenge I thought of different categories of things people could be thankful for. Then I organized them into 30 days. I came up with rules like: each day you had to say the thing you were thankful for to one person, you had to say why you were thankful for that thing, and you had to thank God for that thing/person.
I'm not quite done with this challenge yet but there are a few things I discovered already. First I realized how hard it was to pick one thing or person in each category. For example, one day I had to say a hobby I was thankful for. I have many hobbies that I'm thankful for, for different reasons. I discovered when I focused on the thing I was thankful for the problems of the day didn't seem to be as big of a deal. Finally, I discovered when I told others what or who I was thankful for it got them thinking about what they are thankful for as well.
Think about it: do you have a lot to be thankful for? If you had to choose one family member, friend, possession, etc. To be thankful for would you only be able to choose one? I encourage you to really think about what you have to be thankful for. Don't just think of tangible things or good things. I'm sure you've had problems in your life that you may not have liked at the time, but they helped change you for the better. Are you thankful for those problems? Will you give thanks to God for all you have?
1 Thessalonians 5:18, Philippians 4:6, Psalm 106:1
Image from here.
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