floods of gratitude

For the first twenty-six days in November I’ve been posting “an alphabet of thanks” on “theworminmyapple.com”- each day a different letter and a different “thanks”. You can go to theworminmyapple.com to read them if you’d like.

Then this morning our interim pastor gave a sermon about thankfulness. He equated it to the banks of a river overflowing and engulfing everything in its path.That struck a responsive chord with me.

I imagined my own thankfulness oozing out of me and swamping over all my worries, concerns. I’d never thought of it that way before. Then I got to thinking about how one of the Bible’s main themes is thankfulness. It starts with the Garden of Eden where, although the words aren’t mentioned, Adam and Eve’s ingratitude was clear. Had they been thankful for all they’d been given to eat, they wouldn’t have been tempted to eat the “forbidden” fruit.

Had the Israelites been properly thankful, they wouldn’t have ended up in captivity. Had David been thankful, he wouldn’t have looked at another woman. The stories of ingratitude are peppered throughout Scripture. The admonition to “give thanks to God” are a constant message.

So I got to thinking. Is depression kept at bay through something as simple and basic as thankfulness? Could thankfulness be the answer to many, many of the struggles we face? Would marital, emotional, relational,  and even financial struggles respond quicker to thankfulness than to worry, concern, over-thinking? Could thankfulness be the first step to healing in many areas of our lives?

However, thankfulness doesn’t mean complacency nor does it mean the absence of dreams and ambitions. I would even go so far as to suggest that thankfulness might well lead to more dreams and inspirations. It’s pretty hard to get inspired when you’re bitter and I think we can agree that unthankful people are often bitter.

This is not your typical Thanksgiving Day mantra. It’s a good idea, of course, to take this day and express thanks but an attitude of thankfulness is an every day approach to life, not a Thanksgiving exercise.

I urge you to think about thankfulness as a flood overflowing the banks of your life. What that would be like for you? How could your life change? I’m going to give it a shot myself. Now I have a lot to be thankful for but there are some challenges and struggles as well. I’m not using thankfulness as a way to ignore them because ignoring our problems doesn’t result in resolution. But I want them to washed over and kept submerged by a flood of gratitude. for

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and if your circumstances are such that there is lot going on in your life, I pray for God’s peace for you today.

Related articles

• Remembering To Be Thankful. Even When It’s Tough. (roadwidows.com)
• Thankfulness For Joy (jewelbarnett.wordpress.com)
• Creative Ways to Teach Kids Thankfulness (parenting-success.com)