Thanksgiving: the Holiday for Remembering and Refocusing
As a new writer, I wanted to say a quick note: I’m very excited to write pieces other than opinions. However, I just really wanted to share my thoughts on Thanksgiving, its cultural implications, and how we should use thanksgiving day to refocus and remember the true joys in life.
I guess you could call me the Ebenezer Scrooge of Thanksgiving.
Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with my family and eating food that my southern momma and grandma have slaved over. But that’s what we’ve become is slaves: slaves to a holiday that satisfies us by fulfilling the quota to uphold a façade of gratitude.
I’ve been doing the math: one day—one out of 365 days. That’s .27% of our year (that’s given a 24 hour time period ignoring that the majority of the day is spent prepping, cooking and cleaning) that we devote to say thanks.
We veil our consistent ungratefulness throughout the year by posting Facebook statuses of the people and things we are thankful for. It seems our culture has accepted and encouraged the belief that if we say a word of gratitude on the fourth Thursday of November, then we can be considered grateful for our blessings.
However, now that my established “Scrooge” self has gotten off her soap box, Thanksgiving is also one of the most important holidays to our culture. It’s important to remember to refocus our lives on the things that matter. To remember how beautiful my sisters’ smiles are, how hard my mom works to perfect food that everyone is just going to devour within 3 hours, how peaceful my dad’s silent reverence is, how the way the wind strips the trees of their leaves in keeping with the changing of the seasons, remind me of life’s true joys.
We live our lives in a hurry, making it to this meeting, completing some task, meeting that deadline, and forget what’s truly important. Why do we only take one day out of the year to really appreciate and focus our lives on those essential people and blessings?
As Christians, we are told to “[give] thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Ephesians 5:20) and to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you,” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
Oh, I’m guilty of it too. I don’t think there has ever been a day in my life that I can confidently say I gave thanks “always,” but there’s grace. But following grace should be repentance.
Again, hear me when I say there is nothing wrong with a celebration of blessings. In fact, do celebrate them. Take the time to remember and absorb those precious moments. Celebrate family, food and a home by gathering together.
But, don’t miss it. Don’t miss the opportunity to refocus. Celebrate the treasures of life on a monthly, weekly, daily, and hourly basis with a standard giving thanks “always.” Don’t take your blessings for granted the other 364 days of the year.
“Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.”
― Edward Sandford Martin
