Ask me what my favorite holiday is and my answer will always be Thanksgiving. If you know me pretty well, you might think that this is because of all the delicious food that is served. While this is true, it is a very small part of why I call Thanksgiving my favorite holiday. The reason Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday is in its name: giving thanks. When I was younger, my family would venture out into the yard to find a "thanksgiving tree" (a small tree branch that could be placed in a vase in the center of the table before dinner). Just before the food was served, we would all take leaves made of construction paper and write what we were thankful for on them. We would then attach the leaves to the "tree" and take turns reading the leaves. While we haven't done this in many years, it has become a tradition in my family to have each person stand up before dinner and say what they are thankful for from the past year. While these traditions are great, I often find myself wondering why "thanksgiving" is only thought of one day each year. Why don't we wake up each morning with thankfulness on our mind; for waking up in a warm bed each morning, for food to eat each day, for a job to be able to go to, for a car that gets you there…the list goes on and on.
Many of my facebook friends this year were posting something they were thankful for each day during the month of November. I think they are on the right track…but they all stopped short. It has been one week since Thanksgiving and one week since I have seen a status about being thankful for something. Why stop with the thanksgivings after one month. It takes just 30 days to form a habit (the number of days in the month of November anyone??) What if we kept that thanksgiving tradition going? What if we started each day with a thanksgiving to God for something He has provided us? How much more aware of how great our God actually is and how much He gives to us would we be? Go ahead, form a new habit; give thanks!
