Tidbits for Life with First Lady Darlene: Thankful

When you hear the word thankful, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Relief, pleased, or perhaps grateful? Is it thank you for waking me up this morning, thank you for putting food on my table, thank you for my health and strength ,thank you for not allowing harm to come to me or to my family or just thank you right now for not allowing COVID-19 to devastate our lives? We should say thank you every day for all of these and have many thank you’s in reserve.

Being thankful can mean different things to different people. “To show oneself grateful, to be thankful, to give thanks.” It is used in a religious sense with or without reference to God. Liturgical folks will recognize the word “Eucharist” in this definition. This term comes from Jesus’ giving thanks before eating his last supper with His apostles (1 Co 11:24).

OK, so what does that means for us today? It means to thank Him every day all-day. In everything we do, we have no one else to thank but God. One thing I love about the Hebrew definition of thanks: it’s totally tied to who God is. The more we learn about God, the more we should praise and glorify Him. In other words, be thankful to Him. "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." "And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful."

The Psalmist repeatedly calls us to give thanks to the Lord for two things: His lovingkindness, and for his miracles among men (Ps 107:1, 8, 15, 21).This isn’t just a polite “thank you” for when something good happens. This is an outpouring of praise to God for who he is and what he has done.

How do we give thanks? The Bible tells us to, “Give thanks to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness to all generations.” (Psalm 100:4-5)

I’m sure that we are all thankful for what God has done for us. We, as Christians, know not to take these blessings for granted. We should know He doesn’t have to do it.

Keeping these thoughts in mind.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope I’ve said something to help you a tad bit.