Thanksgiving In The Corner

I love Thanksgiving and after I got old enough and wise enough to understand exactly why we celebrate certain things, I started to feel sorry for Thanksgiving. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Thanksgiving is treated unfairly by it’s older, bigger, better dressed brother named Christmas.

We have the ability to slow down and focus on what really matters and appreciate Thanksgiving for what it should be, a time for appreciating our blessings and enjoying quality time with our family and friends, but it isn’t easy to do. Society blasts us daily with messages telling us that we should ignore Thanksgiving and go shopping for that other brother-Christmas.

Moms and nanas, let me ask you a question. If you take two of your children or grandchildren to the bank and the teller offers to give them suckers, do you only give a sucker to one child? Of course not, and if you are like me you even make sure the suckers are the same color. We do our best to treat our children and grandchildren fairly.

Remember that famous line from the movie Dirty Dancing. “Nobody puts Baby in the corner.”  My friends, we have put Thanksgiving in the corner.

Stores put Christmas decorations out before Halloween and homes are decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving. It’s like Thanksgiving doesn’t even exist. It only has one purpose….for stores to get ready for Black Friday.

When I stop and think about all that I am thankful for there are three things that always rise to the top of my list. Faith. Family. Friends.

I am blessed beyond measure and I try to keep an attitude of gratitude in my heart. If my life ended tomorrow I know I have been given way more than I deserve. I also know that like President Kennedy once said, ““To those whom much is given, much is expected.”  And I know that Acts 20:35 reminds me that I should concentrate on giving….not taking.

“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

We live in a nation that is also blessed beyond measure and we are a giving, caring nation, but there is always more we can do, in our country, in our communities and in our homes.

A Nation of Gratitude

I wish the rest of the world could see us as a nation filled with gratitude, but I’m afraid they don’t. I think they see the bright lights and bling in our stores, the television advertising glorifies having more, more, more. They get the false impression that all Americans live like kings and are selfish and materialistic. What they may not know about are the soup kitchens, the angel trees filled with needy children’s names and the homeless shelters.

I don’t know what to do about this anymore than you do, but I can start by taking Thanksgiving out of the corner and giving it the respect it deserves.