25 Days of Thankfulness: Day 20. Time to Look Back!

Normally we take the end of the year to look back and reflect on all that has gone on in our lives over the past year. This is a perfect time to reflect on all you are thankful for. One thing you can do is to try and see where everything comes from. It can make you appreciate what you have in a whole new light.

Take your bed, for example. Sure, you got it from the store. Time to look back a little farther than that! That store had it delivered from a factory by a trucker who works very long hours to get goods where they need to go. The factory took raw materials, and a worker made it with their hands. The raw materials were harvested by lumberjacks (most furniture has a wooden base) and sheep herders (if the upholstery is cotton). Does that make you appreciate your bed a little more?

But ultimately, everything you have is a gift from God. Someone tried to argue with me on this. :) They said, no, my goods were made by men in factories. Without men they would have nothing, they said. Alright, a man (or woman) made the goods you use. Who made that person? Who gave them the inspiration and the abilities and the opportunities to create the things you have? Why, that would be God. So when you are thankful for something or someone in your life, in the end, you should be thankful to God.

25 Days of Thankfulness: Day 19. Direction!

Thankfulness implies a two person relationship. You cannot thank an inanimate object. You can be thankful for it, but you can't actually thank the object itself. Well, you could, but you would be assigning it a spirit, which makes it a person and takes this post off topic. Basically you need two souls; one to give thanks and one to receive it.

Obviously, when you thank another person, you can see how this works. But what about when you give thanks for objects in your life? What about when you are thankful for a sunset or the fact that you're alive? You are thankful to a higher power, whatever you believe to be in charge of your life. I'm telling you to look in the direction you are sending your thanks. If you aren't sure who is on the other end, maybe it's time you thought about it.

I've mentioned church and God before, it should be no surprise that I'm Christian. I debated whether to go ahead and talk about that on my blog. At least more than I already have. But all my hang ups aside, that's the reason I'm thankful.

25 days of thankfulness is counting down to Christmas. When I am thankful, I am really thanking God. Many articles I've looked at online tell you that incorporating gratitude in your life will enrich it. It will improve the quality of your life, and possibly even the quantity. They don't tell you WHY. I'm certain a sense of gratitude towards people in your life will help your relationships and give you a better mental outlook. But I know that being thankful to God will improve your relationship with Him and THAT is going to make your life something special. That's the direction we are heading in. There are 7 days left in this series and it culminates in the birth of Jesus. Just know that's where we are going from here. I'm not planning on being evangelistic. I'm pretty bad at that, actually. I'm just planning on telling you how I take everything I've told you about thankfulness in my life and wrapping it up with the whole reason I am thankful in the first place. Today I am thankful for the courage to write this and have the commitment to keep going till we are done. I almost took the easy way out and tried to fill the last of this with fluff.

[This post will be a little early. I am noticing that people seem to like it better when I post by 8am, and since there is no guarantee of that for me tomorrow, I'll just post a bit early. :) ]

25 Days of Thankfulness:Day 18. Read All About It!

When you need to know how to do some thing, how do you teach yourself? I used to go to the library and get a book. Now I jump on my computer or phone. But I read up on it either way. So I'm recommending that if you want more gratitude in your life, read up on ways to do that. There is plenty out there!

10 Grateful Steps to Happiness

10 Tips to Raise Your Energy by Being Thankful

20 Things to be Thankful For

How to be More Thankful

I haven't read up on all of these, but I know I am grateful for so much information at my fingertips and the intelligence to wade through it and find the pieces of value. :)

25 Days of Thankfulness: Day 17. Competition!

image via vastateparksstaff on Flickr

Here is a somewhat novel competition. Grab your family, perhaps around the table at a meal. Or a willing friend or loved one. Take turns saying one thing you are thankful for. You cannot repeat what has already been said. Fun, yes? It may be entertaining at a family/holiday get together.

I'm hoping it helps you dig deeper for what you are thankful for. It should quickly go past what you normally hear and venture into the realm of the personal and thought provoking. I would say you can suggest things if people get stuck.

You can declare a time limit of, oh, say, 30 seconds. If someone gets truly stuck you can declare the game over. However, it shouldn't end on a negative note, and that person doesn't 'lose.' Instead, they get a hug from everyone so that they have that small thing to be thankful for and then you move on to other things. I think it could be fun for you and an easy way to be thankful in a social setting.

25 Days of Thankfulness: Day 16. Be Thankful to Be Prepared!

The motto of the Boy Scouts is Be Prepared. Obviously I was never a Boy Scout, but my mom and dad taught me the same thing. I have always tried to be prepared, but over the years I have found myself equating it with having more and more material things. I would like to suggest that thankfulness be part of your preparedness. 

When you are thankful for the people and activities and goods in your life, you show them with words and actions. This leaves less room for regrets. You probably can't eliminate regrets altogether, but when disaster strikes, you'll know you told the people you loved you appreciated them. You will have enjoyed your favorite activities fully, and used your goods well and not squandered them. 

It may not help in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. But later, when the initial flood of emotions and stress has worn off, the thankfulness you have hopefully made a habit will surface and let you re-appreciate what you have and remember anything you lost with only fondness and a little sadness, not regret. I can speak from experience, as I have learned this from not being prepared in this way. Today I am thankful I have learned from the error of my ways.

Quick update!

You may have noticed I'm only posting about thankfulness. I initially planned  to include a regular post on Mondays Wednesdays, and Fridays. However, I find I am not quite up to that much writing. You see, I only get to write while my son nurses. :) That means I type one handed on my laptop and it takes me a half an hour to finish a short post. So I'll save other posts for after Christmas. :) I'll just leave you with an adorable pic from our Christmas season!

25 Days of Thankfulness: Day 15. Stay inside.

image via Mark Turnaukas on Flickr

Days like yesterday remind me to be thankful. I didn't find out until late in the evening, but today I feel like staying indoors and snuggling with my son and being fervently thankful we're ok. There will be all sorts of other prayers said all day, but it's alright to stay in and be thankful from the relative safety of your home.