The Habit of Thanksgiving
By Dr. Synesio Lyra, Jr.
In the United States of America, a specific Thursday every November is designated as a Day of Thanksgiving. It’s interesting that this challenge for gratitude on the part of individuals and the entire nation comes late in the year. It gives us all the opportunity of reviewing all blessings received throughout the year and, then, offering thanks for them!
It is sad, though, that for many people thanksgiving also comes quite late in their lives. It’s only after they start missing something or someone that these persons recognize how favored they had been before.
In many such cases thanksgiving cannot be manifested to a benefactor anymore, whether it be a parent, a spouse, or any significant other in a person’s life. Nevertheless, God should still be thanked since “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and descends from the Father of lights in Whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Epistle of James 1:17).
Furthermore, true gratitude should never be limited to any single day or season of the year. That’s why I allude here to the habit of thanksgiving. God surrounds us daily with His gifts. He puts people and things in our lives to help us advance, to meet specific needs, and to bring us joy.
Sadly, so much of that we tend to take for granted. Yet, it’s important that we recognize small as well as great favors received, as reasons for our giving of thanks. Many times, each day, it’s our joyful duty to “praise God from Whom all blessings flow.”
The Holy Bible reminds us and human experience confirms it, that God daily loads us with His benefits, and “no good thing will He withhold from those that walk uprightly”(Psalm 84:11b). He is interested in the wellbeing of all His children, and He does for us “exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). Sometimes He does it directly; most often through His human agents!
The only way Thanksgiving may become a habit is if you develop the discipline of literally counting your blessings, registering all divine favors, whether great or small, even recognizing certain hardships in life as blessings in disguise.
Remember, God will not repeat certain favors to you if you are not careful to acknowledge them with a grateful heart, neither will He send you greater and additional blessings if you disregard those daily benefits you’ve come to expect as something He automatically dispenses whether you ask for them or not. Thank Him not only for new, fresh gifts, but also for past manifestations of His unchanging love and mercy to all His human creatures!