Thanksgiving was yesterday

The holiday, that is.

It’s a great time to remember,
recall and recite those things we are thankful for…..
and to whom we are thankful.

It’s full of family,
friends,
food
and football.

Food is prepared and cooked for days and it’s all eaten in about 1 hour.

The build up is long and the “holiday” is over after the meal.

However…..
as Lee Corso repeatedly says
on GAMEDAY each football Saturday……

“ not so fast, my friend.”

The “day” we label Thanksgiving
is the 24 hour period on the fourth
Thursday every November.

But true THANKSGIVING
is a life-long attitude and mindset.

It’s an developed attitude which we grow into when we understand appreciation and gratitude.

It is not an automatic human trait….

your children do not say
“Thank you” without you teaching them and constantly reminding them.

Thankfulness is a developed trait.

A practiced trait……
it should be a habit

It can be a LIFESTYLE.

When we learn to say “thank you”
and understand and what it means….

we can then move into ….THANKFULNESS.

A habit or lifestyle of THANKFULNESS…..

comes from a mind and heart of humility and politeness.

It’s graciousness.

Thankfulness is a mindset of
knowing from where things come.

From where do things come….???

Many things come from other people.

Many things come through other people……from another source.

As it says in The Word ….
“every good and perfect gift….
comes from above….”

Knowing and understanding from where eventually all gifts are derived from … allows that humility and graciousness.

Gifts come the heart of another.

Spouses, parents, children, friends
are those others…

But….

“Not so fast, my friend “…..

The Supreme OTHER is the original Giver of LIFE, and all
“good and perfect gifts”.

“Good and perfect gifts”
are the ones which
do not need batteries,
they do not come with receipts
and they are sometimes not visible to the eye.

They are usually timely
sometimes perishable
many times life-long
and the most perfect are eternal.

Receiving these gifts and understanding the depth behind them creates in us the constant attitude of THANKFULNESS.

Every time you think of something
you have ….
can be a time to say “Thank you”.

Every day there will be a moment you will feel the sense of gratitude and that’s the instant you should express “thanks”.

The lifestyle of gratitude and
THANKFULNESS is birthed through
the awareness of what a “gift” is….

for it is on some level a sacrifice.

Some “other” has sacrificed something for the gift given.

It is birthed through that awareness….

and grown through the
practice of stopping ….
and expressing “thanks.”

From the birthing and the practice…
we will walk into a lifestyle of
unending thankfulness.

Living in “thankfulness”
is a good place to be.

Living in “thankfulness”….
pushes back on the natural inclination toward self-sufficiency

and allows humility and gratitude to
exist and affect our thoughts
attitudes and lives.

THANKSGIVING is on the fourth Thursday of November…..

the giving of THANKS is a lifetime of

daily….
expressed…

GRATITUDE.

As we get into this Thanksgiving week, move yourself into an attitude of Gratitude and Thankfulness.

Last week I mentioned thinking about and then expressing the reasons why you are thankful for those around…. to those around you.

I would encourage you to take a step beyond that and spend time considering those you are thankful for….to whom you cannot express any words.

This group includes those people who have exited this life…. or who are no longer in your life
through location or vocation……
and my encouragement to do this is
wrapped with a sense of Joy…
not sadness or grief.

It is a joyful thing to rehearse the gifts,
the words,
the lessons
and the lives lived out for
and before us…

by our parents,
grandparents,
family members,
old friends,
ministers,
teachers
coaches…..

for those lives and lessons have contributed and molded us into the people we are….and are becoming.

I believe this attitude is more of what THANKSGIVING is about.

The inner consideration and sense
of gratefulness and thanksgiving
for what has been granted, given and bestowed upon us….

is what can move us closer to the spirit of THANKSGIVING…
and where we are spiritually instructed to be.

To….”give thanks in all things”.

In spite of the prayer of thanks we can speak as we sit down to eat, we probably take the food we eat for granted.

How many meals have you missed this month??

It’s easy to take an everyday occurrence for granted.

It’s the same thing with the people we see and speak to everyday.

Only if you take time to consider what those “everyday people” gift your life with ….
will you be able to appreciate and
experience gratitude for and toward them.

Take the time….

Having this inner sense of gratitude
and thankfulness will change the way you look at life.

You will most likely be happier.

Joy will abound.

Your step will most likely have a little spring to it.

And a smile will more easily
grace your face.

Use these next few days leading up to the THANKSGIVING Thursday… to set aside time, consider and enter in to a time of really being thankful.

The way we spend THANKSGIVING
is usually eating, watching football
and taking a trip to someone’s home.

Being THANKFUL has nothing to do with any of those things.

Look at your life…,
ponder those things for which you are THANKFUL…..

For which you are grateful….

For which you are appreciative.

Take the steps to rehearse this on your mind and heart.

I encourage you to think on these things and
determine to express
and actually SPEAK
words of GRATITUDE and
THANKFULNESS to one or more people.

As you read this
someone may come to your mind.

That may be the person you need to speak to.

Tell them you are THANKFUL
for them….

then surprise them….

TELL THEM WHY…..!!!

Its like saying “I love you”
to your wife.

It’s nice and she appreciates
those three words.

However,

she will be never forget
the words you say to her when you EXPRESS THE REASONS WHY
YOU LOVE HER.

It may be you speak to your spouse…

It may be you speak to a child,

It may be a friend…

There are people to whom you need to speak.

It takes more thought,
and more effort.

Saying the WHY you are thankful
will mean more than the food you put in your mouth.

The WHY that comes
out of your mouth,
from your heart

will bless and benefit
those to whom you speak
these words of THANKFULNESS.

Begin to THINK
about how you are THANKFUL
and the words through which you will express the WHY.

And then do it.

I heard this on an episode of
POLDARK.

If you have not watched this
Masterpiece Series on PBS,
I recommend it.

In a recent episode the main character, an Englishman named, Ross Poldark,
makes a comment about another character who was had suffered a setback and was hurting.

He said…..

“A sure remedy for a sore heart …
is a mission.”

Read that again.

It was a fictional character speaking in a television series…. but the words spoken are a great
truth.

I had to write it down….as I do when I hear or read a profound or memorable phrase in a television show, movie or book.

“ A sure remedy for a sore heart…
is a mission.”

It is a sure thing
that focusing on some task
outside of one’s self
or one’s hurt or pain…

will change the focus from the
subjective to the objective.

It changes the concentration from
the inside and the despair
to the outside and the task at hand.

It removes the mind from the past and places it in the present or future.

It looks ahead
and can create a thought process toward a solution and some task at hand.

Be aware of people who are hurting.

Consider what their “mission” might be ….that can possibly lift them out of the stagnation that pain and despair can push them into.

Giving of oneself to another…
or to something other than oneself,
is a proven process that will
displace the pain and replace it,
maybe quickly or over time,
with focus and concern for the
the “mission” and its outcome.

It’s somewhat like this.

If you THINK on the numbers
from 1-25 ….
go ahead,
start counting.

When you reach
the number 10…
begin to SPEAK
out loud,
the alphabet….

You will find the spoken word takes precedence and the counting stops.

The spoken activity of the “mission”
replaces the inner concentration on the counting of numbers.

You, yourself,
have probably experienced this.

Therefore, notice those around you who are in a rut,
who are in the middle of turmoil,
or in pain.

Consider a “mission” for them.

Encourage them in it.

Volunteer to undertake the “mission” along with them.

If they will walk with you in this….
and it may take some time,

however….

it’s a sure remedy.

It’s not a sit-still life.

Nothing productive happens when one is passive.

I would say 95% of all successful endeavors have reached the level of success because of vision, effort and exercise.

When passivity enters into a business….or a relationship….. slow down and failure are soon to follow.

It’s not a sit-still life.

Rest is important.
And temporary.
And short-lived.

Life is not a sit-still thing.

Faith is not a sit still thing.

If you possess It….
It will lead you to get up
and ACT on It.

Like the book of JAMES said….
“Faith without works…is dead”.

Show me someone who possesses true faith and I will show you a person of vision, effort and exercise.

Nothing you care about is a sit-still thing.

Marriage is a good example.

The ceremony is beautiful,
it can be costly
and is a great deal of fun.

But after the Vows
and the reception
and the honeymoon…

if one party gets passive,
the other party will grow increasingly irritated and the relationship will fade.

On the honeymoon itself…
if one party is passive,
the other party will be less than pleased.

The tuxedo, the dress, the rings,
the words expressed and the intimacy ….
are merely the beginnings.

If one party says that they are
now “married” and that’s it….
It will be not last long.

If you love someone…
you ACT on that love.

Inaction does not reveal love….
it involves vision, effort, exercise.

Love is not a sit-still thing.

That’s one problem with some
belief systems.

The ceremony of baby dedication
is beautiful and enriching and is
a truly religious experience in some
churches.

However,
if the parents believe that the baby is then “taken care of” spiritually…
then there can be the occasion where the parents are, or grow passive about the spiritual life of the infant/ adolescent/ child.

This spiritual passivity can lead to their own spiritual stagnation…. and if the parents remain spiritually dormant ….
the child will he raised on a level that is lower than the commitment the initial ceremony called for.

Spirituality is not a sit-still thing.

Try to live a spiritual life by only saying a few words,
attending Church once in a while,
and by never reading the Scriptures,
and by never seeking a closeness to
the One Who inspired those Scriptures…

and…
just like the marriage
that will slowly fail,
the passive spiritual life will grow dry and brittle
and will lack the intensity of love
and will fade into unimportance.

It requires vision,
effort and exercise.

If a Church gets or grows passive…
it will slowly die.

The Pastor and the congregants will need to act on vision with effort and exercise.

If a family gets or grows passive because of any reason…
the love will fade and the relationship suffers a slow death.

Never fall into the trap of the
sit-still existence.

In business,
you have to intentionally
“launch out”
once in a while to stay engaged.

In marriage,
you have to stay actively pursuant
of each other….
to continually grow the relationship.

On an individual spiritual level…
what is needed is the submission to be conformed to be like Christ with the vision laid down
in the Scriptures,
and the effort and exercise to purge ourselves from the old life.

That will not be achieved with a
sit-still attitude.

The sit-still life is like a plant or flower you might give someone.

If all one does is give the flower…
it is beautiful
and will remain attractive
for a short period.

If the flower is not tended to,
not watered,
not planted,
and left merely to itself…

the beauty fades
the petals fall
the stem bends and withers

and what was once beautiful
is now ugly and dead.

It must be actively and intentionally cared for,
attention and time must be given
and steps taken to nurture its growth.

Successful life is intentional

Successful life is purposed.

It’s not a sit-still thing.