This is a wonderful time of year. It's a time when many families and friends can come together and reunite after a long year away from each other. The majority of the celebrations, parties and gatherings we will attend between now and the new year will revolve around a plentiful table of rich dishes and decadent deserts. Most of us, including myself, will put our goals of loosing a few pounds on the back-burner in the spirit of celebration and the hopes that the new year will bring us more success. I tend to spend far too much time between Thanksgiving and New Years wishing I had done better obtaining my goals. Sometimes it can be down right depressing. This negative self talk only gives me more fuel to add to the fire when I'm presented with a table full of some of my favorite deserts that I won't likely see again for another year. In a way, I give myself permission to over-eat and indulge in a way that I wouldn't normally. I propose this......rather than making the food at the table of each celebration the focal point or even the reason we're coming together, how about we celebrate the relationships with the people we are with, remember the people that couldn't be with us and be thankful for all the Lord has given us.
Colossians 3:15-17 says:
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
God gave us food and food is a part of many celebrations in the bible. The bible speaks about feasts celebrating weddings, reunions and harvests, always giving thanks. If we were to take a step back, celebrate our successes of the past year, set goals for the new year and fellowship with the family and friends around us, suddenly the food is secondary. It doesn't matter if you are sitting down at a table with all the traditional Thanksgiving feast favorites, you're quietly sitting with your spouse having a plate of lasagna or you have a job that requires you to work and you simply have a sandwich with a bag of chips. Food isn't a destination; it's a gift.
Isaiah 12:4-5
In that day you will say: "Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world."
I pray that each and every person that reads this will take a moment today (and everyday) to be thankful for all the Lord had done for you. There is so much to be thankful for, it is almost overwhelming when you really take the time to think about it.
1 Timothy 4:4-5
For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
I have asked those that will be sitting at our Thanksgiving table to come up with at least one thing they are thankful for and share it with the rest of us when we sit down to our meal later today. Maybe you'd like to give it a try?
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
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