Before you slice the turkey.

I can’t wait for Thanksgiving.

Not only for the turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, yams (my favorite!!) and sparkling cider, but for FIVE ENTIRE DAYS OFF SCHOOL.

You heard me. Five days with no homework due, no classes to attend, no lectures, no assignments…. Just me and that turkey singing kumbaya.

Ok. That’s a little extreme. But maybe you can relate.

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November has been an action-packed month with another semester of school winding to an end. I’ve been chipping away at final projects (which I have in every class yay!) as well as just keeping up with the regular routine of assignments and work.
Needless to say, I’m ready for a break.

Today, however, as I woke up begrudgingly, thinking about the full day of work and and school ahead of me, I realized something.

God doesn’t want me to just be happy during thanksgiving break.
He wants me to be full of joy now.

God doesn’t want me to just be thankful on thanksgiving day.
He wants me to be thankful today.

Gratefulness is so important to God. Over and over in the Bible, we are commanded to give thanks.

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” -Colossians 3:17

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his steadfast love endures forever!” -Psalm 107:1

“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe. “-Hebrews 12:28

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! ” -Psalm 100:4

“Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!” -1 Chronicles 16:8

And not only are we commanded to give thanks when we feel like it, but as 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you!”

But thankfulness shouldn’t be forced. It’s not some positive-mindset thing we do in order to be a more optimistic person. It’s not the “thank you” your mom forces you to say when your Grandma bought you socks for Christmas instead of a scooter or a ballet tutu.

We’re commanded to give thanks, because we always, always, have something to be grateful for. Something marvelous, remarkable, and too wonderful for words.

We have the right to become children of God.

Oh what an indescribable gift! Thank you Jesus! Even if salvation was all you ever had, you would have all you need.

And yet, we still grumble. And yet we still complain.

We look at the circumstances and the situations in our lives and think that we deserve better. What’s funny is, we should be thanking God for that too.

Because if got what I deserved today, I’d be in Hell.

In Romans 1, as Paul lists in detail some of the characteristics of sinful humanity, one of the key things he outlines in verse 21 is that, “they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.”

That means being ungrateful is a sin. Yeah. Ouch.
But let me take it even one step further.

I think ungratefulness is usually masked behind other attitudes. None of us would go around saying, “I’m really ungrateful for my job, or my difficult math class, or my relationship with so and so .” However, too many of us go around complaining about our jobs, whining about our difficult math class, and believing we’re entitled to a perfect relationship with so and so.

We don’t think we’re being ungrateful. But we are.

I read once that “The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything, but the soul that complains can find comfort in nothing. “

I couldn’t agree more.

I don’t want to look forward to thanksgiving break and neglect to thank God for every day that comes before. I don’t want to spend the days God has given me to glorify him and serve him in a grumbiling and disgruntled attitude.

I not only want to to replace my ungratefulness with thanksgiving, but my whining and complaining too.

Yeah, I have to work a full day today, when I wish I could sleep in and get ahead on school, but thank you God for a job!
Yeah, I’m not really looking forward to vacuuming out my car tomorrow, but thank you God for a car!
Yeah, I’m still recovering from a cold and it’s not too fun being sick, but thank you God for yummy herbal tea and a warm house and wonderful things called kleenex and nasal decongestant.
Yeah, these final projects are difficult, but I’m thankful for an education, and the opportunity to be challenged, and to learn.

I am thankful.

And I want to keep developing this practice of thanking before complaining, even when I don’t feel like it. (Especially when I don’t feel like it).

Not because I want to brainwash myself and pretend that nothing hard is going on, but because I believe in Gods sufficient grace and never-ending love. God doesn’t want us to put on optimism and pretend that life is perfect. Instead, He wants us to accept the difficulties in our life, put on faith, and see them as blessings.

As A.W. Tozer once said, “Gratitude is an offering precious in the sight of God, and it is one that the poorest of us can make and be not poorer but richer for having made it.”

Lets start practicing thanksgiving before we slice the turkey. Lets start praying in the midst of hardship for eyes to see the goodness of the Lord, and faith to thank him for it.

He is always good. So let us always be grateful!

“The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to the one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!” -Psalm 50:223