It’s hard to believe that after this long and crazy year of 2020, we have finally arrived to Thanksgiving week.
All of our lives have been affected with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of you may even be avoiding a large family gathering for the 2020 Thanksgiving holiday.
Normally, we want to see as many family members as we can due to all of us not having enough time to see other family members as we would like to see them. All of us are just so busy in our own ways. Then throw in the affects of a pandemic that has really shook up homes across the Wright County region and the country as a whole.
Many have lost jobs or know people who have lost jobs.
Others have been sick with the coronavirus or were quarantined due to being near someone with the illness. The list goes on and on for the many challenges, inconveniences and perhaps tragic situations as a result of this pandemic. Yet through it all, you are reading this editorial as we are now just a month away from Christmas and then a flip of the calendar page into the year 2021.
I encourage all of you reading this to be grateful for how you have made it this far in spite of the many obstacles life has thrown you over the past seven months.
It is extremely important for all of us to be grateful for what we have. Our problem is that so many of us stay so busy, that we fail to recognize just how blessed we are to live in the greatest country in the world and to live in this corner of the Ozarks.
Back in 2016, the Forest Hills Church in North Carolina made a video that best captures how I think each of us should live when it comes to gratitude and expressing our thankfulness for the things we have.
The video begins with a man wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper waking up in bed.
He says, “I’m alive.” This is referencing for each of us to just be thankful we get to wake up in the morning.
He then looks to his left and sees his wife wrapped in Christmas paper. He says to her, “You’re hear to, I love you.” Then comes a child wrapped in wrapping paper into the room.
We are so busy that we fail to truly appreciate the blessing of being married and possibly having kids on a daily basis. We never know when the last time we will see someone we love. Never fail to tell them you love them and be grateful for every moment you have together with them.
The dad then goes to the light switch that is also wrapped in paper and he is excited he has power. We take for granted that we live in a country where at the flick of a switch we can have light.
He then notices a bow on his sink and says, “We’ve got clean water.”
We can turn on water at any time and drink it, take a shower or even let enough run to get the water hot just for the purpose of shaving our face.
The dad in the video then puts on shoes that were also wrapped in paper. To think about how many people in third world countries or those in the homeless population who would just love to have one pair of good shoes. Yet many of us fill the bottom of a closet and complain when some of us have no shoes to match an outfit. The family then goes to the table where there is a gift box filled with breakfast. The man then grabs his suitcase, also wrapped in paper, signifying his need to be thankful he has a job. He then goes to his wrapped car and is excited he has one. The video ends encouraging viewers to be grateful for the gifts around you.
All of us are so busy. That will likely never change for most of us. So while keeping up with the countless tasks at hand, I encourage you to never fail to be thankful for the things that you already have. Don’t take for granted how blessed we are to have access to what we have access to. I encourage you to start living on a daily basis in being thankful for the things God blesses us to have every day. It might just change your life.
