Gratitude Lists

 

I can remember a lot of Thanksgiving dinners.  When I was growing up, a lot of our Thanksgivings seemed to begin quite early in the morning, followed by a four- or five-hour car drive to a relative’s house followed by a wait of a few hours for Thanksgiving dinner.

I’m not sure if I was literally starving to death by the time we sat down to the meal, but it seemed as though I was getting close.  It was at this point, that someone launched into the longest prayer of the year, blessing the food and thanking God for all of the things they could think of to thank Him for.

I like to think that I was a thankful child.  I certainly always said thank-you and if you asked me to list things I was thankful for, I would have had no trouble listing ten things.  Being as spiritually minded as I was, those would have included being thankful for the Bible, Sunday School teachers, and freedom of worship. 

And yet, I wasn’t thankful enough to want to spend a whole lot of time listing out those things when I was hungry and there was good food set before me.

Beyond all this, my young mind told me this sort of pause could be dangerous.  Who knew how long it would take for salmonella to start to grow or some other dreadful malady?  There are many food borne illnesses in this world and most of them come because food sat out too long before people ate it.

I wonder how thankful most of us are.  I know that if asked, we all could make a Gratitude List and put more than 20 items on it and yet, when I talk to people, I sense that they are a lot more focused on the negative aspects of their lives than the good things.

I once worked with a surgeon who asked me, “What is the enemy of good?”

I was used to questions having to do with various diseases and naming various items of anatomy and so this question came out of the blue.  “I guess evil,” I said, uncertain of where we were going with this conversation.

“No, no, no!”  He said in reply.  “The enemy of good is better.  Never forget it!”

The problem is that as we imagine how our life situation or finances could improve, we rob the present of enjoyment.  Contentment is something that gives us everything without a major change in life circumstances.

The Apostle Paul said, “In everything give thanks…” (I Thessalonians 5:18)

The point is not that we give thanks for the suffering in our lives, although God can work even that for our good, but that we continue to count blessings, even on our darkest days.  Gratitude Lists are sure to lift our spirits, simply by shifting our focus from the things we lack to the innumerable blessings that pepper our lives.