Let Your Thanksgiving Be Godward

Something we are thinking about at the Haygood home this Thanksgiving holiday is the direction of our thankfulness. It really should be easy to be thankful. You can look around and see that you have it better than many other people you know. And if you happen to be the most pathetic of all your acquaintances you can always "look" around the world at the misfortune and poverty and say profoundly, "I am thankful to be where I am and have what I have!" But is that true thankfulness? Simply contentment or feeling luckier than this or that person?

As Christian we know that all good gifts come from God. So we must not just be thankful, but we must be thankful TO God. We must not joy in things or people or situations, but we must joy in what he has done, created, and changed. I feel that my thankfulness has been so vague at times that I might as well have been thanking the universe or mother-nature from my blessings, or even other people for being who they are.

John Andrew is just learning to pray. At night he makes a list of all the people he wants to pray for. The list usually consists of family members and anyone he saw that day. Then we say ok lets pray. He folds his hands and says, "Gink you wookey (luke)" and then Daddy stops him and says John Andrew remember you need to address God. We pray to God! So he starts again, "God, gink you wookey, gink you pops, gink you granna, gink you papa, gink you mimi...." And the list is pretty long. We are trying to teach him that just thinking about people you love at the end of the day and saying their names out loud is fruitless. It is when we address the God of the universe and come before Him with praise, adoration, thanksgiving, and requests that there is meaning and fruit.

In the same way I am trying to train my own heart this year to yes be thankful, but to be thankful to the right One. So when I say I am thankful for Chad, what I mean is "Thank you God for creating, saving, and sanctifying him. Thank you for your sovereign, good plan in bringing us together and allowing me to walk though this earthly life with an amazing man after your own heart." When I say I am thankful for John Andrew, I mean, "Thank you God for creating this life and allowing Chad and I to raise him. Thank you for showing me through him a glimpse of how you see Jesus and us. Thank you for sanctify me through being a mom to a crazy, into-everything boy. And thank you for creating this personality that brings so much joy to our house." When I say I am thankful for Luke, I mean "Thank you God for giving us a second child, for increasing our love and our joy in that way. Thank you for the quiet times of kisses and cuddles you give me with him and for that toothless grin that melts my heart!"

I wish I had time to let you know what I mean when I say I am thankful for our parents, and siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, church family, friends past and present. For all these things I am thankful to God, for He created all things and He is to be glorified in all.

So my encouragement to you on this day and every day is to let your thanksgiving be Godward!

Happy Thanksgiving!