by David Dewitt

Created on: November 26, 2008

We make Thanksgiving Day about history. We get this wonderful image of pilgrims and Indians gathered around this massive table, covered with food, enjoying a meal together. We make Thanksgiving Day something that is as American as Apple pie and baseball.

We make Thanksgiving Day about family. How many of you are planning to travel to spend time with family? How many of you are having family come in? Either we travel to the family or the family travels to come join us. We get together with those we love and maybe those we have not seen in a long time.

We make Thanksgiving Day about food. We spend large amounts of time preparing food and our special items that make the meal special. The world might come to an end, if the meal was missing our favorite cranberry sauce or casserole that we love. Then we sit down to a big meal and gorge ourselves with turkey and Pumpkin pie.

We make Thanksgiving Day about entertainment. We turn on the television early so we can watch those wonderful parades in New York, Philadelphia or Chicago. We then are ready to spend the afternoon watching football or some other sporting event. We might have a heart attack if we missed that all important football game. Then when evening comes we watch some concert or some television special.

Is this what Thanksgiving is all about?

Thanksgiving is more than just celebrating food, family, and football. We do celebrate Thanksgiving but we often forget to be thankful. Thanksgiving is to be a holiday where we show our gratitude for the blessings we have. There seems to be a general misunderstanding about the nature of being thankful. Many people today complain more and are thankful less. On the day after we are to give thanks, people are pushing and shoving to get those Black Friday bargains. Is there a problem with this? It is a symptom of a greater issue, ingratitude. People are generally ungrateful for the many blessings that we have.

We forget that we are incredibly blessed. Statistics tell us that if we have money in our wallet, spare change in a jar or money in the bank, we are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy. We look at our blessings and we seldom are thankful for the things we have.

Simple ways to experience genuine thankfulness on Thanksgiving

1.) Adjust your attitude to one of gratitude

Our attitude is where gratitude begins and if our attitude is not right than we will never truly show genuine thanks.

2.) Make a list of your blessings and start small

We all have so many things that we have to be thankful for that we take a lot for granted. One great way to remember to be thankful is begin with simple things like air to breathe or being able to breathe. If we have a place to live and food to eat, we should be thankful.

3.) Thank those people who have blessed you this year

We are blessed by the actions of those around us but how often to we actually offer thanks? Being thankful for others is one way to show thanks.

4.) Give to others less fortunate than yourself

There will always be those who are in need. We should prove our thankfulness by giving. We bless others out of the blessings that we have received.

5.) Live a daily lifestyle of thankfulness

Each day is a new day to be thankful. We make the choice everyday to live in gratitude or to be ungrateful.

This Thanksgiving remember that there is more than just turkey and football. There is a lot to be thankful for.

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