Thanksgiving Year-Round
Hey y’all! It’s November; red, orange, and yellow leaves
rain down on breezy days, and cute boots and scarves are donned. Even Pizza Inn has a pumpkin spice pizza
(which I will NOT be trying any time soon, for your information). But perhaps the most famous thing about
November is that it is home to the beloved holiday, Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is usually the day of
too-much food and too-little genuine thankfulness. We may go around the dinner table and state
something that we are thankful for, but if you think about it, that’s pretty
puny. Honestly, we probably spend 10
times more time on preparing turkey and dressing than on actually giving
thanks.
The truth about Thanksgiving is
that it’s not actually a holiday. It’s a
verb. Thanksgiving is something we need to be doing every single day of the year – not just one day out of the year,
where it’s practically suffocated by turkey anyway. Giving thanks for what God has given us, and
how other people have blessed us, is something that should be a priority in our
lives each day. The holiday is simply a
reminder.
So, this Thanksgiving season, I’d
like to challenge you to make thanksgiving a priority on your to-do list each
day. Thankfulness is very important to
the Lord, so make it important to you, personally.
I’d like to share 8 specific ways
you can make thanksgiving a priority in your life this month, and beyond.
1 --- Write down 7 things you are thankful for each day. Then take these 7 things to God in
prayer.
2 --- Set your timer for 1 minute and write down as many blessings you
can think of. I think
this would be a great exercise for us all to do. See how many things you can come up with!
3 --- Send thank-you cards to influential people in your life. Have a card-making, letter writing
day and send snail mail to the special people in your life. Write your friends, your mentors, your
co-workers, your grandparents, your teachers, missionaries, and anyone else
that has left an impact on you or invested in your life.
4 --- Take photos of God’s creation.
Use your camera to capture the beauty God has given to you in
His creation. Go a step further and
share them via your Instagram, blog, etc. or print them out (or order them) and
put them on your bedroom door.
5 --- Hide little gifts and notes for your family. After all, family is one of the
greatest blessings God has bestowed upon us.
Although sometimes they can make us want to pull our hair out, when it
comes down to the nitty-gritty, they see it all and they love us still.
6 --- Give to God. Serve, minister,
witness. Tithe/donate money to further
His work around the world. Give of
yourself to others, because that is serving God as well (Mark 9:41, Matthew
25:45). Give of your time and your heart
to the Lord, through prayer and Scripture reading.
7 --- Text your friends. Simply send
a quick text that says “I’m so thankful for you!” or “You’re such a blessing!”
or something to that effect. A text like
that will brighten up anyone’s day.
8 --- Make Turkey. Yep, go
ahead and make that turkey. Help your
mom in the kitchen on Thanksgiving, or if you’re in for a challenge, do it all
for her. Enlist your siblings to help
you ;)
Happy thanksgiving (v.),
friends! I’m thankful for you!
What are some things you are thankful for?
Have you ever made Thanksgiving dinner yourself? What did you make?
Other posts to read:
Yes, so true! It's so easy to forget that we need to be giving thanks all year round!
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way, I'm grateful for you too ;)
I'll try to reply to your email soon... :/ I've been swamped with school lately.
Blessings!
Thank you so much for commenting, Grace! Aww, thanks! I'm so thankful for you <3 And don't worry about replying to the email soon -- I know you must be really busy with school + more school + work + being a daughter and sibling + everything else life brings, so honestly the delay is fine ;)
Delete*Virtual hugs from the south!* :)
Ahh, this is beautiful! Thank you for sharing these words, friend <3 I'm thankful for YOU!
ReplyDelete(PS: And pumpkin spice pizza? ewwwww xP LOL)
Thank you, Bella! I'm so thankful God brought you into my life, too <3 (And YES, when I heard about that I was like "SERIOUSLY?? Pumpkin spice pizza?? That's so gross!")
DeleteI loved this post! Last year I kept a list going of things I was thankful for. I think I got to around 200. It was a really good exercise to remember all that God has given me. I've never made a Thanksgiving dinner all by myself. I don't think I could do it. ;)
ReplyDeleteIt was so much fun last week at HSF. Your pieces were flawless, literally. :) See you Saturday!
I'm glad you liked this post, Joy. I'm SO thankful for you!! Wow, that's awesome you wrote down around 200 blessings last year! And haha, yeah, I'm not sure I could make Thanksgiving dinner by myself either... but it's on my bucket list, so maybe one year...! :P (But if I ever do that, I promise that it'll be the Thanksgiving dinner with the least amount of food we've ever had. Haha!)
DeleteI know, HSF was super fun! I was so glad I got to see you so much. Aww, thanks! You played beautifully, too! <3 I was so happy you made finals! See you soon! :)
This was such a great post, so incredibly true! A few things I am so thankful for are: a smile from a stranger, the ability to bless someone to surprise them, the ability to freely worship and read God's word, and SO much more! Your list was a lot of great ideas! No, I've never made the entire Thanksgiving dinner, but I do enjoy making the pies, green bean casserole, wrapping the sweet potatoes, and more!
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with you and Bella, pumpkin spice pizza? Bleck! :P
Those are wonderful things to be thankful for! Thank you for commenting, Livy. And those sound yummy! We've never done sweet potatoes, but we do make a green bean casserole ;)
Delete