7 Things I’m Thankful For: Thankfulness
It’s Thanksgiving week, and I’m devoting my blogging space, to, well, things I’m thankful for. Please feel free to comment, and share what you are thankful for.
It may sound strange or even redundant, but one of the things I am most thankful for is actually Thankfulness itself. Now we all know that being thankful is a good thing. Mom taught us to say our pleases and thank yous. While praying for meals, we make vague statements like “Thank you for the food and the hands that made it. Bless it to the nourishment of our bodies.” If you grew up in a traditional church like I did, you sang the song “Count Your Blessings” so many times that you didn’t want to even think about it anymore.
But I first started taking Thankfulness seriously about a year ago when I came across a few studies of people using “Thankfulness Journals” as part of an overall treatment for depression. They said the key was to note things that you were thankful for that others had done for you. This means not saying “Thank you for my good looks!” but “Thank you for the sacrifice so and so made for me today.”
With this in mind, I’ve started keeping a Thankfulness journal. A few times a week I’ll take a few minutes to write a list of five things I’m thankful for. I try to focus on things God and others have given me, and try to be as specific as possible. Now, not only am I a natural cynic, but I’ve also had a hell of a year. So coming up with five new things–specific, meaningful things–I’m thankful for is not very simple. At the time, it didn’t seem to help, mainly just frustrate me. But since then, it has begun to develop into a bit of a spiritual discipline for me. And looking back over this difficult season, I am able to focus more on the blessings I made note of than the struggles I dealt with. The had time just seem like a footnote in a time in which I was really blessed.
