As we celebrate Thanksgiving, it’s a question I have never asked. A day full of food and family, football and laughter, & togetherness without expectation. A time to stop, as it reminds us that Christmas is very near. But why give thanks?
When you thank someone, you acknowledge their presence in your life. They took the time and showed interest or they did something that helped you without any expectation of you returning the favor.
When someone thanks you, there is a smile on their face that is memorable. It touches your heart that they understood the kindness you shared with them. In both of these instances, there is an authenticity of genuineness that is missing on our phones.
Thankful for our situation, our blessings, or our outcomes is sometimes harder for us to see. It’s always the obstacles or the stressors in our life that consume us and steal our attention. They narrow our focus stealing the wider view of our life for us to reflect upon. You see, we need a much wider view of our lives to find multiple things in it to be thankful for.
Being thankful, always demands an outside person, force, or circumstance to have crossed our life’s path. Life is not meant to be about us. Building the muscle of gratitude, requires realizing that our lives need so much more than ourselves to be meaningful.
Acknowledging others every day by showing gratitude, can remind us of this simple but very important lesson. Giving each of us the opportunity to reflect on what is good in our lives and then building upon this important and good foundation.