I was perusing my facebook page updates, looking over the various things that my friends were putting as their statuses, when one caught my eye the other day. It said something along the lines of, "Isn't it ironic that we Americans give thanks for what we have one day, and then the next day is dedicated to greed and getting more?" That's not an exact quote, but the thought was very much along those lines.
That got me thinking. How thankful are we really? I realize that there are so many times that I take so many things for granted. On "Black Friday", my wife and I stopped at Old Navy. They had some jeans on sale, and I was in need of some new jeans. I have two pairs that have the knees ripping out of them, and they could use replacing. So we went in and found two pairs to replace the ones that I will have to get rid of. Only, now as I sit back and think about it, I wonder how thankful I am, not only that I live in a country where you can get so many jeans for such cheap prices, but that I even have a single pair of jeans.
That seems to be the problem to trying to recover from Thanksgiving in this country. We're immediately bombarded with the message that we now need more, and that the stores will graciously discount some of the things so that we can get them cheaper. As I recover from Thanksgiving, I really do wonder: do I need this stuff? Sure, it might be a great deal, but am I going to suffer without it? Is it really necessary? It may be a great deal, but I save even more money if I don't spend any on the thing in the first place!
The kind of recovery from Thanksgiving that I would truly love to have is one that reminds me that I have so much to be thankful for, and that I then become even more thankful for what God has given me. Recovery isn't about wanting more just because it's discounted, but realizing that I have so much more to be thankful for, and then actually being thankful for it even more than I was before I thought about it. That's the kind of recovery I'm going to aim for following this Thanksgiving.
That got me thinking. How thankful are we really? I realize that there are so many times that I take so many things for granted. On "Black Friday", my wife and I stopped at Old Navy. They had some jeans on sale, and I was in need of some new jeans. I have two pairs that have the knees ripping out of them, and they could use replacing. So we went in and found two pairs to replace the ones that I will have to get rid of. Only, now as I sit back and think about it, I wonder how thankful I am, not only that I live in a country where you can get so many jeans for such cheap prices, but that I even have a single pair of jeans.
That seems to be the problem to trying to recover from Thanksgiving in this country. We're immediately bombarded with the message that we now need more, and that the stores will graciously discount some of the things so that we can get them cheaper. As I recover from Thanksgiving, I really do wonder: do I need this stuff? Sure, it might be a great deal, but am I going to suffer without it? Is it really necessary? It may be a great deal, but I save even more money if I don't spend any on the thing in the first place!
The kind of recovery from Thanksgiving that I would truly love to have is one that reminds me that I have so much to be thankful for, and that I then become even more thankful for what God has given me. Recovery isn't about wanting more just because it's discounted, but realizing that I have so much more to be thankful for, and then actually being thankful for it even more than I was before I thought about it. That's the kind of recovery I'm going to aim for following this Thanksgiving.
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