You Should’ve Skipped Thanksgiving

You should’ve skipped Thanksgiving this year if you’re grumbling and complaining today. After all, you were just being a hypocrite. Why would you celebrate a day that you don't believe in? If your modus operandi is to look for what you think is wrong and then voice it, why did you even celebrate Thanksgiving? Everyone was looking at you like, “What’s he doing here?”

Now, if you are wondering if this post is written for you…Just check with a friend or two. :-)

Seriously, Thanksgiving isn’t a day. If it’s just a day, it’s meaningless. Thanksgiving is a lifestyle. I like the term, “Thanks-living.”

When you learn to live life that way, everything changes. Everything becomes more enjoyable and more meaningful. Your job, schooling, your time at home, being at church, hanging with friends…Every one of those things are miserable events for some people. And every one of them are delightful for those who are grateful. Thankful people find meaning in every aspect of their lives. Whiners and complainers find little meaning in anything, and live their lives lacking contentment and fulfillment.

In fact, one recent study, with real scientific data reviewed by peers, identified the single greatest quality of happy people. Happy people regularly express gratitude. It’s not our happiness that makes us grateful. It’s our expressions of gratitude that make us happy. Even unhappy people who express gratitude become happy.

So, don’t let last Thursday be an isolated day. Let this become a lifestyle.

Try it now. Express gratitude in a meaningful way to a dozen people in the next couple of hours. See what happens. I dare you.

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 ESV).