Miracle of Every Day Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Eve with just us. Spent Thanksgiving Day with one set of family. And festivities will continue with more family over the weekend. 

Amid laughter, love, stories, and an overabundance of food, it is easy to be grateful.

Yet Thanksgiving doesn’t have to be a one-day (or weekend) event, nor should it be.

Give thanks today, tomorrow, every day you draw a breath. Be grateful when you wake in the morning and when your head settles on the pillow in the evening. 

Thanksgiving doesn't have to be a one-day (or weekend) event, nor should it be. Give thanks every day. Click To Tweet

Perpetual Thanksgiving

Murmur words of thanks for your health or for the strength to cope with health problems or for the opportunity to give God glory in chronic health issues. 

Sing praises that the sun rises in the morning and the glorious moon and stars appear in the darkness. 

Shout thanksgiving for shoes and clothes, food and shelter. 

Praise God for a smile that catches your eye, the trill of a bird’s song, sunlight reflecting off the snow.

Give thanks for a warm drink on a cold day, tissue to blow your nose, and still more to use in the bathroom (so grateful I’ve never had to use newspaper or catalogs for that job!).

Express gratitude for the ability to write a letter, make a phone call, or to simply pray. 

Don’t wait to feel grateful. Sing songs of thanksgiving first; the feelings will follow. 

As Ann Voskamp observed in One Thousand Gifts: “Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle.”

The Miracle of Thanksgiving

And that miracle? How will we know it? What does it look like? 

The miracle isn’t always a relief from circumstances.

The miracle we receive when living thanksgiving is a heart and mind changed.

The miracle we receive when living thanksgiving is a heart and mind changed. Click To Tweet 

The miracle is a heart and mind 

• bolstered by the love of God,
• ready to receive and live grace,
• renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit,
• stayed on contentment and peace and joy,
• transformed into the likeness of Christ. 

Thanksgiving always precedes the miracle. The miracle found in the Lord’s forever love.

With that in mind, every day is Thanksgiving, with a beautiful cycle of thanks givings and miracles realized! 

“Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Jeremiah 33:11)

Reflection: What does the miracle of thanksgiving mean to you?