As the Thanksgiving holiday comes, to a close and we embark on the upward recovery from our food-induced comas, it is important to remember the “reason for the season”. Thanksgiving has passed and most people are now in full Christmas mode. Trees are now socially acceptable to cut, unpack, and decorate, and elves are perched on shelves countrywide. I love the holidays as much as the next person but before we begin Christmas caroling and filling our mugs with hot chocolate, it is important to dwell on the purpose of our most recent holiday.
Thanksgiving= Thankfulness
Many of us become bogged down in the hustle and bustle of life and lose sight of how blessed we are, even in the midst of our demanding schedules. Thanksgiving allows us a moment to breathe and come together in fellowship, to break bread with those who mean the most to us, and remember how much we blessed we truly are.
Tomorrow is not promised and neither is family. Families across the world are separated by war, circumstances, death, etc. Those of us who have the opportunity to go to our grandmother’s house for an early lunch and then off to our second cousins house for dinner each Thanksgiving must stop for a moment and thank God for such a wonderful gift. Life is busy and at times stressful but why don’t we work on changing our mindset about our daily trials and turn them into things we are thankful for.
Picture this:
Your family most likely sat down together for a meal this Thanksgiving — correct? In my household we grew up going around the table saying things we were thankful for. This year our responses centered around the birth of my niece, my brother’s engagement, and my quickly approaching graduation from college in December. Of course these things are all worth giving thanks for but how many things did we forget to mention? Just like on Facebook and Instagram, we highlight the positive aspects of life and the smiling faces we put on for the camera but we often hide the not-so-bright-and-shiny parts of life. In light of this revelation, I want to make an alternative list of what I find myself thankful for this year.
Make Lemonade out of Lemons
I am thankful for all of the blessings the lord has given me in my life. Some of these blessings, at first, seemed to me like trials, but in the end they have led me right where I should be. I am thankful that I am terrible at math and changed my major freshman year from animal science to political science. I am thankful for traffic that makes me late to work or class when it means I avoided a nasty wreck on the highway. I am thankful for my large blended family even when it means I sometimes find myself stressed by how much traveling and planning it takes to visit them. We must be thankful for all the little trials in life because they show us how strong we truly are. Having a hard time at work but you finally finished that proposal for your boss and he received it with a smile? Wonderful! You persevered through the stress and showed how determined and strong minded you truly are. Life is not always going to be as calm as the actual sit-down of a Thanksgiving meal. More often than not, it’s going to be as chaotic and stressful as the traveling and planning that comes right before the calm and planned out meal. The morning leading up to Thanksgiving is a great depiction of everyday life. If we can learn to be thankful for those moments of life, we will feel the blessings of the Lord year-round and not only on a particular Thursday in November.
Takeaway:
Life is not going to be as organized and calm as a yearly meal with the family but that is the beauty of it. I challenge each and every person reading this to find one daily stress a day to turn into something to be thankful for. Maybe that means thanking God that your large grocery bill means you have plenty to eat for the week. Instead of feeling defeated by your newborn not sleeping through the night, be grateful that you can hold your little one in your arms and watch the sun rise together. Thankfulness leads to a happy heart. The holiday may have passed, but now let us hold onto that feeling of thankfulness. May we take it with us throughout the year, until we meet again at the family table next Thanksgiving.
Samantha Linton
– The Marketing Team
The Allen Firm, PC
181 S. Graham Street | Stephenville, Texas 76401
Ph: 254.965.3185 | Fax: 254.965.6539
The Allen Firm, PC is composed of a team of attorneys located in Stephenville, Texas. Our mission is to improve people’s lives by providing reliable and practical help with their legal matters while operating under our values of honoring people, operating with integrity and striving for excellence. We offer help in forming businesses or companies, estate planning, lawsuits, real estate, probate, oil and gas, collections, agriculture, bankruptcy, family law, and accident and injuries.