During Thanksgiving we go around the table and say what we are thankful for or we take the 30 day challenge when someone tags us in Facebook to say one thing we are thankful for during the 30 days of November. Now that Thanksgiving is over with the turkey dinner is cleaned up and relatives are making their way home, which depending on your relationship with your family could be one of the things you’re thankful for, and we are perusing Pinterest to see what we can do with all the leftover turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, or we’re heading off to a Black Friday sales to get the best deals on Christmas presents, how do we keep our attitude of gratitude during the rest of the holiday season?
This is a lesson I’m working on to teach my kids. Is it me or are there more advertisements for toys this time of year? Rarely do our kids sit down and watch the Disney Channel, not because I’m against television, but because during the week our kids have homework, drama club practice, swim lessons, wrestling practice, and the list goes on. One of my coworkers gave me the advice of only having your kids enrolled in one event at a time, which is what we do, however, each kiddo has a different interest, so my life becomes about logistics most days after work.
However, over Thanksgiving, our kids are out of school, obviously, with limited homework and no extracurricular activities. My youngest wanted to watch Disney Channel after we had finished cleaning the house. Within 30 minutes, he had a list of 10 new toys he absolutely had to have this Christmas and could Santa please bring them? Since I wasn’t paying attention to the commercials getting things ready for Thanksgiving dinner, I had no idea where this new list had generated from in less than 30 minutes.
I’m not sure about you, but this is the way I can be with the advertisements for the holidays. I see the latest tech gadget or newest cooking tool and I think, I must have it. There are things in my house I bought off an Amazon Deal of Day and now, I can’t figure out what possessed me to buy it in the first place and it’s too late to return it. Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this, right?
So, I’m challenging myself during the countdown to Christmas to let go of the material side of the holiday and working towards keeping an attitude of gratitude which seemed prevalent during Thanksgiving and keep it going through the rest of the holiday season. I also want to be an example to my family of what it looks like to have an attitude of gratitude, instead of filled with desire or depression for things we don’t have in our lives. Here are three ways I’m challenging myself.
1. Turn off the television. Now, I do have limits on this. Being a huge football fan, the whole reason I have satellite television is for football, otherwise I could do without a television. So this might not be a big challenge for me, except I also love the holiday specials. The point being is the advertising for Christmas is almost as bad as the recent political campaigns ads, the positive ones, not the negative ones. According to these commercials, it seems we can’t go another minute without bigger diamond earrings or an automatic pizza cooker which is easy to clean and gets our pizza done in half the time. If these things are within your budget or on your Christmas shopping list, awesome! But so many times, I see these advertisements and begin to wonder if I need the automatic pizza cooker. Is my oven not good enough? This leads to the question, am I lacking? Do I not have enough? In 2 Corinthians 3:5, (ESV) it states, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God.” We already have everything we need to be sufficient in God.
2. Get off Pinterest. Don’t get me wrong, this site is wonderful for recipes and lately I’ve been planning my weekly meals from the boards I follow, but this site can create feelings of our homes or our lives not being enough. We think we need a new kitchen or a bathroom remodel and it’s super easy with blocks that adhere to the outside of our tub walls. One destroyed bathroom later and a bill from a contractor to fix the damage, and we realize to emulate the beautiful pictures, we need a professional. I don’t want to buy into the lies that if I only have the perfect kitchen, my life will be better and I’ll be a better cook.
I think learning to make do and jimmy rigging what we already have, makes me a better cook and a more creative person. However, God has blessed us with a wonderful house, a stone fireplace to keep us warm during the cold winter nights and a great kitchen with a spectacular view of the Rocky Mountains. Truly a dream come true for me. According to James 1:17 (NIV) Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” These gifts have come from God. Not everyone would like where I live, but it’s perfect for me and God knows this about me.
3. Let go of the news cycle. Keeping an attitude of gratitude seem almost impossible with CNN or Fox News playing in the background or checking the headlines of MSN. Let’s face it, negativity sells. Watching or reading the news can be scary. It’s hard to be positive when I believe the world is falling apart and no one has an answer. Then I remember, God has the answer. He is ultimately in charge of everything. Nothing is outside of His watch. In Joshua 1:9 (ESV) God encourages us with this verse, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” I know God is always with me and nothing I do is out of His control.
These are the three things I’m challenging myself with this holiday season. Do you have ways to keep an attitude of gratitude going? Please share your tips in the comments below.