Thanksgiving with a Thought

Thanksgiving can create several different and sometimes terrifying thoughts that can haunt us at times. Will the turkey be dry? How long until they bring up the fact that you’re still not married? How soon will our uncle end up having a little too much wine? Are those annoying cousins going to show up and make the whole dinner awkward?

These thoughts can ruin our holiday. So if we are going to have a good Thanksgiving maybe we need to go to what God thinks about Thanksgiving. Yep, that is right God talked about Thanksgiving long before the pilgrims and Indians had lunch together. God has some thoughts about how to make giving thanks even a bigger part of our lives. I think there are three things we could think about that God talks about with Thanksgiving.

In Psalm 50:14 in the New Living Bible it says, “Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High.” We probably have all been there at one time or another. We are stuck or in a situation we need to get out of and we say a prayer and ask God to help us out. When I was a kid and this would happen I would promise God that I would always go to church and try to do better if He could just take care of my latest screw up. God just doesn’t want some sacrifices, he wants us to keep our promises. So if we think about those promises and what it will cost us to keep them, then maybe we will not be so quick to go making them.

We all know what it is like to have someone promise us something and then not follow through with us. It is hard to see them coming sometimes after they disappoint us. I have often wondered if God is thankful when he sees me. I think we need to work hard to keep our promises not only to God but to the people in our lives. God says just don’t offer up a thanks to Him, actually keep your promises so that when someone sees us they can be thankful we are a part of their lives. We have a chance to make others thankful by keeping our promises and coming through for them whenever we say we will.

God continues in Psalm 50 verse 23 in the Contemporary English Version: “The sacrifice that honors me is a thankful heart. Obey me, and I, your god, will show my power to save.” God wants us to be thankful for the “rules” He gave us. When I was a kid growing up in church those rules were used to remind me of just how far from being right that I drifted every time I did something wrong. It took me years and growing up to realize that those rules were not given to make my life worse or less enjoyable.

My ideas about the Ten Commandments have changed over the course of my life. Maybe God wants us to remember the Sabbath day so that we can refuel and rest to face a new week. Maybe if I don’t lie to other people then they don’t have to worry about my honesty. If I quit wanting everything my neighbor has then maybe I can relax and enjoy what I already have. If I honor my parents then I show my kids how to honor others. If I go home to my own wife then maybe I won’t be worried about getting caught up with a jealous husband. You get the idea. If we are thankful that God has given us guidance to a better life with some rules about not being hurtful to others or causing them pain with our choices our lives can become more beautiful.

One last thing I want to talk about is found in Philippians 4:6. The New Century Version reads, “Do not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks.” This verse always amuses me because of how it starts. Seriously, “Do not worry about anything…” Well that is an easy request to follow isn’t it? You know I’m kidding and we all struggle with worrying about almost everything in our lives. It seems impossible at times not to worry. But, after years of research and self-reflection I’ve learned something about worry. If you worry about something going wrong or worry about it going right you cannot change what will happen. We waste so much energy worrying. But we can talk about that another time.

This verse continues and says we should pray and ask God for everything we need, always giving thanks. Have you ever taken some time to just have a prayer of saying thanks for all he has done for you? What would it be like to just start and end our prayers with just saying thanks to the God who listens to us and meets us in the middle of our troubles? So here we have it, don’t worry, pray and say thanks. Could it be that simple to get past worry? Could it be that if we just concentrated on being thankful that the rest of this stuff wouldn’t keep us up at night? Maybe it is time we all give it a try.

So, I’m thinking to add our Thanksgiving we keep our promises, obey God’s rules and be thankful for God’s blessings in our lives. We might just find a new bunch of things to be grateful to God for. I’m at least gonna give it a try and see what becomes of it.