“The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson1
Of all of our national holidays, the one with the deepest history is Thanksgiving. Whereas various days of Thanksgiving occurred in the colonies as far back as the days of the first pilgrims, it was on October 3, 1863, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that November 26 would be a national Thanksgiving Day, to be observed every year on the fourth Thursday of November. Only twice has a president changed the day of observation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in order to give depression-era merchants more selling days before Christmas, assigned the third Thursday to be Thanksgiving Day in 1939 and 1940. But he was met with popular resistance, largely because the change required rescheduling Thanksgiving Day events such as football games and parades. In 1941, a Congressional Joint Resolution officially set the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday for Thanksgiving.2
One of the realities regarding our nation’s observance of Thanksgiving Day, is that there is no guarantee that while celebrating it, participants will express any specific thanks for the good that is in their lives. For Thanksgiving Day to be a true day of thanksgiving, there are at least three things that must be in place. There must be individuals who feel grateful for something in their lives. What does it mean to be grateful? One of the simplest definitions is found in the Hebrew words for gratitude —“hikarat hatov”. Together these words mean “to recognize the good.” So, a key to a grateful heart is that an individual must be able to recognize that something good has occurred in their lives at the hands of someone else. There also must be someone or something that they credit for the good they have recognized. For those who believe in a good God who gives good gifts to His children, it is He to whom their expressions of gratitude will be focused and voiced. On the contrary, those who do not believe in God, should they even desire to express gratitude for the good in their lives, can express it pridefully toward themselves, or to fate, karma, other people, or good luck. Last, there must be a conscious expression of their feelings of gratitude to the someone or something they credit for the good. That expression of gratitude can be internal or external, but if that expression of gratitude is to bless the one to whom it is focused, it needs to be external. It needs to be tangible (i.e. verbal or written). Unexpressed gratitude only blesses the one whose heart and mind are home for their gratitude.
Let’s look at how the absence of each of these essentials can hinder feelings of gratitude as they cause individuals to overlook blessings in their lives. First, feelings of entitlement can rule their hearts and minds. Why should they go to the trouble to thank someone for providing them with what they have concluded they have the right to expect. A second hindrance is discontentment—the attitude that what they have at any given time is not enough. We will be wise to heed the wisdom of philosopher Aesop who lived in Greece during the 6thk century BC. He wisely connected gratitude and discontentment with this wisdom, “Gratitude turns what we have into enough.”3 A third squelcher of gratitude is disappointment. Disappointment arises when outcomes do not match expectations. If allowed to linger, disappointment can morph into discouragement. When disappointment and discouragement are in play, individuals can overlook blessings that could make them grateful.
Second, a lack of thanksgiving may be due to absence of someone worthy of thanking. That is the price one pays for removing God from their lives. Therefore, their search for peace, purpose, and meaning omits being able to express thanks to Creator God of the universe who specializes in doing things worthy of giving praise and thanksgiving for those who love Him. It’s hard for an individual to be thankful when the source of one’s perceived blessings is inanimate and impersonal fate or luck.
Third, despite the fact that one is experiencing feelings of gratitude to God for His rich blessings, that’s no assurance that thanksgiving will be expressed on Thanksgiving Day. The busyness of the day—travel, food preparation, duties of hosting family and friends, cleanup, and fatigue can cause even someone intending to make it a day of thanksgiving to wake up on Friday having failed to express their thanks.
For the person who wants to live a life of joy, peace, and contentment, turning moments of thankfulness into a spirit of gratitude—not just Thanksgiving Day but every day—is key. The Bible says that very thing in Philippians 4:4-7, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Now that’s something to be thankful for.
1 The Week,2/10/2015, p.19.
2 Smithsonian, Thanksgiving: From Local Harvests to National Holiday, online article
3 Beaumont Enterprise, 2020.
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