Thankfulness as a Way of Life

I met a gal from Tanzania yesterday while I was out running errands with the kids. She made a comment about Americans that had great insight. We were talking about sacrificial giving - giving of yourself to the point where it affects your own life, sometimes negatively. I was sharing some stories of sacrificial giving that had moved me to tears. Her comment back was that this type of giving seemed extraordinarily unusual for Americans, that most of us don't get it.

And she is right.

It caused me to ponder the reasons why we don't get this in America. I think it all boils down to one thing that we are missing in our daily lives: thankfulness. My thought is that most of us go through our daily lives not realizing how abundantly blessed we are to live in this nation. I've seen many people come with me to Africa, South America, Asia (it doesn't matter where mostly) and be challenged by the "lack" that they are seeing. Seeing others' lack - and yet also seeing them give sacrificially to their communities and families - creates what I will call a "thankfulness gap" in us. We quickly realize that we don't get it. We aren't thankful everyday. And that daily thankfulness doesn't drive us to give sacrificially of our lives.

Now, I'm not talking about giving financially only. I know plenty of people who give financially - and even a very small handful that give sacrificially financially. I am actually talking about giving of ourselves in such a way that we don't get the credit or recognition. Taking a volunteer opportunity to the next level or reaching out to serve the immigrant family among us - who could never repay that act of kindness. Even just being kind to someone in the grocery store or helping someone on your block in need.

An attitude of daily thankfulness motivates you to serve others sacrificially with a great heart of love. On this Thanksgiving Day, why not start a revolution of thankfulness in your own life? You can decide everyday to "count your blessings", making everyday a thanksgiving day of its own. Don't wait until you go someplace else and see how amazingly rich this place where we live is - recognize that fact today and live differently.

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