Be thankful for who you are and what good things you have
Have you ever woken up early in the morning and thought to yourself that today is just another humdrum day? Chances are that you have as many people go through the same routine. Life seems stuck. There doesn't seem to be a lot to be thankful for. But wait a minute ... don't you have at least something to keep you mindful of thankfulness? Everyone has, though finding it is the task at hand. Forget about you and family and things you are familiar with and step into the world of people from all over the world. This may just stop you in your tracks, but it's fact and it's real and may just make you a little more aware of what you have and what you should be thankful for.
When you woke this morning, did you feel thankful for the roof over your head? Did you feel thankful for the fact that your kids will wake up in your home feeling protected and cherished? Contrast this with the number of homeless kids in the United States and you will see that indeed being thankful is well overdue. More than1.6 million children in the United Stateswere reported as being homeless each year. That means, in effect, that they might not have the same things as you to be thankful for, although the smiling face of a homeless child may mean that one homeless child remembered the wonderment at seeing a sunrise. Of course, when a cold November night starts to envelope the child's smallness, it may not be something to be that thankful for, though it makes you think about how lucky your kids are that they have a home.
To keep thankfulness as the heart of your Thanksgiving, remind children of the love you feel for them by setting example. Children are very perceptive and will pick up on your positive attitude toward life and gain something very valuable from it.
If you think of all the things that you take for granted and then look at how lack of these things affects others, there's a certain feeling of sadness. It's a sad fact that in countries across the globe, children die because they don't have sufficient water that is clean enough to drink. You may have seen advertisements on the television and these may even appear on Thankgiving TV, but the reality is that many people ignore those advertisements because it doesn't affect their lives. Instead of ignoring the advertisements, think of the numbers. Two thousand toddlers,under the age of five, die each year through malnutrition or illnesses associated with the digestive system. This is a terrible loss to the world. Look again at the things you have and perhaps make a point to waste less and give a little of what you save to help these figures decline. An act such as this would be a reminder about thankfulness and you can share that action with the family so that family members feel a sense of giving.
Try helping in your area on a volunteer basis. This helps to instill thankfulness. You may be serving soup to hungry people who live on the streets or visiting people in a hospice situation who have no reason to feel thankful. However, once you try this, you may find that the thankfulness these people display is humbling. The man with rags wrapped around his hands for warmth may give you the warmest smile you ever saw. Those waiting to die may just shock you into a humbleness you can't back away from, since their bravery and their thankfulness for each day that they wake up puts you into a very thankful state of mind. It makes you re-assess who you are and all the things that you have and certainly reminds you of what thankfulness is all about.
By taking action before Thanksgiving and volunteering either help financially or your time to causes bigger than any cause you have experienced in your life, you put yourself into a state of thankfulness in advance of Thanksgiving. That puts you in the right frame of mind and also means that the help you give others can be part of your Thanksgiving celebrations.
When you sit around the table at Thanksgiving and you want members of the family to keep thankfulness as the heart of the Thanksgiving celebration, remember to say a Thanksgiving Grace that may start the meal with a reminder to people of all the things they have. "Thank you for the food we are about to eat. Thank you for giving us arms and legs. Thank you for giving us fresh water to drink. Thank you for giving us a roof over our heads. Thank you for the gift of life which enables us to share this day." That may remind those around you that Thanksgiving really is a time for gratitude.
