Be Thankful
I was scrolling through Facebook when I saw it. It was big. It was beautiful. I wanted it. I started to feel like my life wasn’t full without it. And what was this thing I had to have in order to feel happy? Are you ready for this?
A kitchen.
Has that ever happened to you? Maybe it’s not a kitchen, maybe for you it’s a car or a vacation or a house. We look at an object and think: If only I had—fill in the blank—I would be happier…my life would be better.
But would it?
Then on the very same evening after seeing this beautiful kitchen my family was over for dinner. Our home was full, not just with people, but with love and laughter. As I was clearing the dishes off the table I peered out from my kitchen and thought: My kitchen is just perfect. I guess my kitchen is not so bad. Do I still want a remodel? Absolutely! But it is the memories that are made in this kitchen that will have lasting value not the appearance of it.
Appearances are so shallow. Wouldn’t you agree? It’s the connections we have with the people we love that will bring true happiness and joy, not the material possessions we have. Longing for things and thinking they will make us happy will only lead to emptiness.
While my kids were growing up there was something we would do on Thanksgiving Day. I’d purchase a tablecloth we could write on and we’d use markers to write what we were thankful for on our table before we served our dinner. Maybe I’ll resurrect this tradition this year. But in the meantime, I’m starting my thankful list right now.
I am thankful for…
- coffee
- peanut butter
- hot water
- bananas
- colored leaves
- a husband who loves me completely and unconditionally and a husband I love wholeheartedly and unconditionally
- grown kids who I’m proud of and have a loving relationship with
- the best daughter-in-law and son-in-law on the planet
- grand-babies that make my heart burst
- friends who enrich my life greatly (you know who you are and I’m thankful for you!)
- God
- and a kitchen filled with beautiful memories
What are you thankful for today?
Discontent and thankfulness can’t live simultaneously in our hearts. Choose thankfulness.
“Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.”
Psalm 95:2-3
Happy Thanksgiving!
