Are You Thankful?

I have a pastor friend who occasionally takes a unique approach to offering a blessing before a meal. Instead of asking everyone to bow their heads and then offering a prayer, this pastor will intentionally look each person in the eye and ask, “Are you thankful?”

The first time I experienced this, I must admit that it caught me off guard; for my entire life, I either bowed my head and sang the children’s prayer, “Thank You, Father,” said the “God is Great, God is Good…” prayer, or shared in a spoken prayer either memorized or extemporaneous. Needless to say, expressing thanks for a meal in this fashion was unique for me. And you know what? That’s a good thing!

It is easy for us to get into routines with the way we offer thanks, and if we aren’t careful, we begin to take for granted the things for which we truly should be thankful! There are times when some unconventional ways to express gratitude are just what we need to help us remember how grateful we should be for all that we have.

I have read a couple articles recently that take another unique approach to helping people consider their gratitude for the blessings of life. The articles present a hypothetical idea that if tomorrow you woke up and were only able to experience the blessings for which you give thanks today, what would you have? Poignant question.

During this Thanksgiving season, many of us will take the time to express our gratitude for the blessings in life. Perhaps around a dinner table tomorrow, we will take turns sharing the things for which we are thankful. We will undoubtedly share things like friends, family, food, health, employment, God, grace, Jesus, and the like, and we should! This is precisely why we need holidays like thanksgiving, so we can pause, identify, and reflect over the blessings we have in life. But imagine what tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, would be like if you were only able to experience the things for which you give thanks today! What would you have? What would you miss?

I don’t know about you, but this idea has really challenged me to be more thankful on a daily basis for the multitude of blessings in my life. And as I gather with my family tomorrow for our traditional Thanksgiving feast, and am pressed into service for offering the blessing (after all, it is what I get paid to do, as a dear sibling once said with a wink and a smile) I think I might just take a page out of my pastor-friend’s book and offer a non-traditional way to begin our meal and ask all who are gathered there, “Are you thankful?”

But you know what? Why wait until tomorrow? I truly am thankful for my life and all the blessings I enjoy – those that bring me comfort as well as those challenges that cause me to grow – so I am going to give thanks today for those things and not wait until tomorrow!

Are you thankful? I know I am.

May God bless you and Happy Thanksgiving!