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What does it mean to be thankful? We talk about thankfulness a lot around this time of year, but it’s something we should be thinking about all the time. It’s fairly easy to see the opposite of thankfulness. Just scroll down your Facebook feed for five minutes and you’ll see more than enough people complaining about their lives, the state of our country, politics, school loans – you name it.
But, what does it mean to be truly thankful? Thankfulness is all about expressing gratitude. It’s easy to get caught up in being ungrateful. I often find that I’ve adopted an attitude of being ungrateful, critical and unappreciative. It happens to all of us. But that’s no place to live. If you choose (and it’s definitely a choice) to live in a constant state of ingratitude it will slowly lead you into depression and despair.
On the other hand, if you choose thankfulness instead of ingratitude it can give you life and renew your soul. It starts in your mind and comes down to what you decide to focus on. Your mind is like a house. The foundation it’s built on determines what your life will look like.
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If you focus on thankfulness you’ll build a solid foundation, but if you’re always focusing on what you don’t have, the problems in your life, disappointments and failures your mind will have a poor foundation. Focusing on those negative things can be like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Your mind needs a solid foundation in order to stand strong and be used for what it was intended.
Paul gave the Thessalonians a challenge and command when he wrote, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Did you catch that? He said to give thanks in all circumstances. That means we should be finding ways to be thankful when we don’t get that grade we wanted on a paper. We should find ways to be thankful when we have a bad day. We should even find ways to be thankful when the candidate we wanted didn’t get elected.
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And, whether you feel like it or not, you have so much to be thankful for. When you begin to look at life through the eyes of thankfulness it’s amazing what you begin to notice that you hadn’t seen before. It’s also incredible to see the change that happens in how you feel physically, mentally and spiritually. You were meant to live life out of thankfulness and when you do your life is much better off for it.
So, I want to encourage you to be filled with thankfulness, not just for a week but every day. When that family member wants to start up an intense conversation share with them something that you’re thankful for instead. When your friend wants to gossip about someone think of something that you like about that person instead. As you make a choice to be thankful, you’ll find that your spirit is encouraged and you enjoy life more. Happy Thanksgiving!
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