Thanksgiving is over. The Turkey is gone, the family has left. Now you're left with a mess of a house to clean. And work is just on the horizon. Or you have to go back to school tomorrow, and you're not ready for the break to end. People are being grumpy cause they didn't get enough sleep because they were watching the football game last night. Church is over and done with, so you know that tomorrow you have to wake up early and start back up with your regular routine. You are stressed just thinking about it. You complain about it to your family in friends. It really isn't fair though. Why can't you just have a break longer than 4 days?
The Thanksgiving feeling that you possessed on Thursday has picked itself up in the middle of the night and is gone. What happened to the long prayer of thankfulness at Thanksgiving dinner? What happened to the feelings of being blessed? Maybe you are still being thankful, even after the holiday has ended, but what happens when the next bad thing hits? Will you still have that Thanksgiving hangover? Maybe.
People forget that this day of Thanks is suppose to last all year long. It says in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 "In EVERYTHING give thanks". We have so much to be thankful for, yet we forget this as soon as the first co-worker starts slacking off, or your teacher overloads you with work. Or your family is bugging you about dumb things that could be handled properly if you just weren't so tired. Whatever the circumstances, people will come up with many excuses to excuse the fact that they are no longer thankful.
Being thankful is no easy task. It is when things are going well and we see that the glass truly is half full, but then the spark leaves so quickly when we realize that it's harder to be thankful in the tougher times than we first thought. It is hard to see the light when you're in the middle of a cave.
So what must we do to be thankful?
There was a story of a woman that I heard about just this year, and she had a very hard time being thankful for anything. So what she did was she took a journal, and every day would write five things in her life that she was thankful for. She did this for about a month and she became increasingly thankful for all that God had given her. I tried to do this very thing, and it works so well. You begin to HAVE to find things to be thankful for, even when you're not thankful for anything. You could try this with your own twist and make it your own, but just give it a try for a couple of days. Maybe you'll like it. Ask God to bless it and help you to always find things to be thankful for. He will listen and help. He loves it when his kids ask for help.
I pray that your post-thanksgiving stress is not too overwhealming and that you all learn how to be strengthened in Christ for your future walk with him. God Bless.
~Whatsoever Things Are True
Philippians 4:8
