When the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in early 2020, did any of us have any idea how much it would still be affecting us in the final months of 2021? How it would disrupt our lives, our communities, our nation, our world?
Unsettled describes life since March of 2020. But sometimes unsettled feels too mild an adjective to describe the seismic changes the world has experienced. Our collective Covid suffering is a very unwelcome add-on to lives already checkered with more than enough hardships.
Which leaves us questioning, “Where is God?” and “What is He doing?” in the midst of this ongoing chaos.
This will be the backdrop again this year in our annual season of gratitude—the weeks leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday. And though feelings of gratefulness may not be bubbling over in our lives, still … more than ever, we need to practice gratitude.
A friend named Ney Bailey wrote a wonderful book called Faith Is Not a Feeling in which she defines faith as simply taking God at His Word:
You and I can either grow accustomed to listening to our feelings, thoughts, and circumstances, letting them control us, or we can be in the habit of taking God at His word despite our feelings and life experiences. We need to choose with our wills to believe that His Word is truer than our feelings.
Choosing to express thanksgiving to God for everything in our lives—whether we value each person as a gift or a difficulty, each circumstance as a blessing or a calamity—is one of the best ways to express our faith. We who “make a claim to godliness” (1 Timothy 2:10) can welcome these next few weeks as an opportunity to both train our children to be more grateful and also quicken our own hearts to generous and genuine thanksgiving to God and to others. All in spite of how we feel.
But first we adults must tune our hearts to thanksgiving.
To help us develop a more grateful heart, I’ve put together an eBook titled, Why We Need Gratitude More Than Ever. Inside this book, you will find four chapters that feature an historical story that highlights a different aspect of giving thanks to God. My hope is that through this eBook you are guided and coached in developing a stronger faith and in modeling a grateful heart for your family and for everyone you know. And you might consider reading the stories to your children ages seven and older for family devotions as you approach Thanksgiving.
This post is part of Why We Need Gratitude More Than Ever. I would love for you to download the full eBook! I think you will be encouraged as we head into the holiday season.
Happy gratitude month!
Ever His,
Barbara Rainey
To download my new ebook on gratitude, click here!
