We Are All Thankful, Lets Do Something About It!

We can all write about how thankful we are, but how far are we willing to go for others? I saw an article online that talked about putting your money where your mouth is and doing something during this time of giving. Below are a few ideas I felt any of us could do that could make a difference to someone.

1. Pick through your closet and pick out some nice clothes to donate to the Dress for Success program. This helps job seekers who do not have clothes to wear to interviews.
2. Take some time off and volunteer in your child’s classroom. Both the teacher and your child will appreciate it!
3. Swing a hammer or sign up to help the Habitat for Humanity to make sure another family has a home for the holidays.
4. Ask a local library what they need, and start a book drive or book sale to help raise money.
5. Call your local Boys and Girls Club and see what they need most. Get a group together and donate these items.
6. Contact your local Humane Society and see what items they need for the winter, or go to the shelter and play with the dogs and cats, they will love the attention!
7. Pick up trash in an area that needs it.
8. Help someone without a car run their errands or drive them to a doctor’s appointment.
While these might not change the world, they might help someone in the community, and isn’t that what it is all about?

Wednesday’s Word: Thankfulness

Thankfulness is the noun that relates to being thankful, so could thankfulness mean being “full of thanks” and could that occur before you recognize that you are the recipient of something, someone or some condition that causes you to be thankful? Webster’s says that to be thankful is to be “conscious of a benefit received.”

What do you want to be full of? Yes, yes we all know people who are full of . . . well you know . . . . and we also know people who are full of anger, whining, complaining, negativity, bitterness and other traits that suck the life out of everyone they come in contact with.

It seems like people who are full of thanks are like magnets that draw good things, people and circumstances toward them. When people are full of thanks they seem to handle adverse circumstances better — it is as if the good overcomes the bad. Finally, I think those who are full of thanks have an unusual gift of healing, hope and encouragement that spills over on all they meet.

How could you be more full of thanks this season or better yet could this become a lifestyle as oppose to a season? What difference would it make if you and your friends and family, intentionally choose to live a life – full of thanks?

Take a minute; reflect . . . how can you become a person full of thanks?  How are you impacted by people who are full of thanks?

Will the real THANKSGIVING please stand up?

Wikipedia states: “Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. It is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States. While perhaps religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday.”

Is that what Thanksgiving means to you and your family? It saddened my heart to see this definition.

While researching, I discovered the first Thanksgiving occurred in 1619 when a group of settlers gave thanks for their safe passage. The feast portion of Thanksgiving was added several years later. At that time, Thanksgiving was a time to give public thanks to God, especially for freedom, and was more of community event, as opposed to a private celebration. Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a yearly celebration. It might be important to note that America was in the midst of the Civil War at the time.

“And Lincoln, too, proclaimed that all Americans set aside the day for a public expression of gratitude to God. He wrote, ‘It has seemed to me fit and proper that they [gifts of God] should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.’” [Gingrich N., Rediscovering God in America, 2006]

What does Thanksgiving mean to you? I suppose you know what it means to me now. It means giving thanks to God, remembering thankfully those who lived before me and made it possible for me to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. I am especially thankful that America is a place of religious freedom for all.

Is today a time like that of Abraham Lincoln? While the subject matter is different now, are we at war within ourselves? Tomorrow, and every day, might be a good time to give thanks to God and ask for God’s favor, wisdom, direction and blessing on our country.

What are you doing on Thanksgiving Day or Thanksgiving weekend?