Giving Thanks For Everything: How To Cultivate Gratitude On Thanksgiving

Last night while lying in bed, I started reflecting on my life so far. Instead of feeling disappointed about what I don’t have, I found myself giving thanks for everything I do have.

As I drifted off to sleep, I began mentally crafting the very blog post you’re reading right now. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it feels like the perfect time to share how thankful I truly am.

Growing up, Thanksgiving was not a thing. I’m from The Bahamas, so technically, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. 

However, our proximity to the US has allowed many Bahamians to get in on the holiday action.

It’s not uncommon for them to prepare Thanksgiving meals and for the stores get into the action, too, offering Black Friday deals. Gotta love commercialism.

Beyond the celebrations, I hope this blog post encourages you to give thanks and cultivate gratitude on Thanksgiving.

Giving Thanks When Life Isn’t Perfect

When things aren’t going our way, when we lose out on opportunities, when relationships fail or we are at our wit’s end, it becomes all too easy to fall into despair. We start to focus on what we lack.

But, we must always take a balanced approach and remember everything we do have. 

Sometimes, it takes seeing someone with far less than us to put things into perspective. 

Here in DC, it’s not uncommon to see homeless people. 

We’re in the fall season now, and the weather takes drastic dips at night. The cold bites, and I can sometimes feel it, even from the comfort of my car.

So, it crushes me to see people sleeping on the streets – it always has.

There’s one woman, in particular, who despite her circumstances is always smiling and always showing immense gratitude for any help she gets.

Watching her weave between cars, I remembered how I had previously complained about outgrowing my home and needing a bigger spot. But, that night, after seeing her, I walked through my door and gave God thanks that I had a roof over my head.

Seeing her gratitude, even in hardship, reminded me how easy it is for negative thoughts to creep in.

Those Negative Thoughts Aren’t Your Own

I’m a Christian and I make no apologies for that. So, as a Christian, I understand that there are things that I don’t see with my naked eye that are spiritually happening around me.

The enemy loves to get us distracted and to let us think that we have nothing – no one, no hope, no resources. That is simply not true. 

Have any of you ever watched Wonder Woman, the 2017 film? 

My favourite scene is the one where Ares, the God of War, explains to Diana (Wonder Woman) how he, throughout the ages, would whisper diabolical ideas and inspiration for weapons into people’s ears, but wouldn’t actually make them use them. 

He admitted to being the orchestrator. And what a fine orchestrator he is.

The first time I watched that movie, that scene stuck with me because I know the enemy moves the same way – often whispering things into our ears, telling us we’re nothing, that we’ll never be anything, that we’ll never have anything – that our dreams are stupid, pointless. So, we give up. 

But, as Ares said, he doesn’t technically make us give up. He just discourages us to the point where we do it all by ourselves.

Try These Thanksgiving Gratitude Ideas

Years ago, I was in a little store in Nassau, Bahamas called, My Favourite Things. I loved that store. They always had the most unique, precious items that you couldn’t find in other local boutiques. It was my go-to store during the Christmas holiday.

I came upon this adorable colourful jar with a lid that had strips of paper and a pen attached. The paper was there for you to write down all of the ways that God had blessed you. I immediately bought it. 

When I got home, I started writing. It’s crazy, but when you sit back and literally write out all the ways God has saved you, protected you, blessed you, you would see you have no reason to doubt His faithfulness.

It became an addiction. Every time something good happened to me, I would rush to my jar to write it down.

Let me encourage you to do the same. It doesn’t have to be a jar, it could be a gratitude journal or just a blank piece of paper. Try it today and you will see just how blessed you are.

I Have So Much To Be Thankful For

Every day, I give God thanks for everything I have – life, my health, the roof over my head, financial resources, to take care of myself and help others, my family and friends.

When I first moved to Washington, DC, I had a hard time making friends. People don’t talk about how hard it is as to do that as an adult, but it’s tough.

Of course, it didn’t help that I moved here mere months before the world was thrust into a global pandemic, so everyone was locked inside.

Over the years, I met many people along the way, but did not find anyone I felt comfortable forming a friendship with.

Many nights I would pray to God to send me really good, solid friends – the kind I could love, trust and have a genuine bond with. I wanted the kind of friends I had back home in Nassau.

I met my first real friend while working a part-time job and we just clicked. We share a Caribbean background, so culturally, we just got each other. To this day, she is like a sister to me. 

I then met my other friends on that same job. We all just clicked for all the right reasons. They felt safe, fun and most importantly, we could be honest with one another. 

Despite my guarded nature, I felt very comfortable opening up to all of these ladies and it has been a blessing.

Final Thoughts On How To Cultivate Gratitude On Thanksgiving

As humans, it’s easy for us to quickly lose sight of all of our blessings because we have a tendency to become hyper focused on what we don’t have. 

This Thanksgiving, as I focus on cultivating gratitude on Thanksgiving, I hope you’ll do the same.

Seriously reflect on everything and everyone in your space because n a blink of an eye, they might not be there anymore. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted By: Rogan · In: Holidays