One step you can take toward Being OK with Where You Are is Living Thankful. November is a great time to focus on this. Let’s walk together this month…

November slips in after the beauty of fall like a quiet friend just before the loud hoopla and festivities of the  Christmas season. Sometimes I think Thanksgiving gets overlooked because we are constantly looking past it to her more beautiful older sister. We shop early. We decorate early. Oh, we do Thanksgiving, but it is rushed and trampled on as we get ready for black Friday.

I know this has been true in my own life for years. November has felt more like the pruning season. Life being cut back to the bare branch in order for fruit to grow fuller and fatter in the months to come. I’m beginning to think, there is more. I’m beginning to see a holy connection—a thread between these two celebrations that when stitched together look like one beautiful tapestry of grace.

I love what Priscilla Shirer says, “Worship rolls out the red carpet for the presence of the Lord.” I’ve been thinking lately that if this is true, than gratitude might be the threads from which the carpet is made.

What if, we looked at Thanksgiving as gratitude feast for the heart preparing us for the worship of God with us? Maybe, we could stitch some of those threads together intentionally and watch as the glory of the Lord shines around us.

We want our hearts turned toward Him at Christmas, don’t we? Gratitude is a way to make space in the hurriedness of our lives and begin a few weeks earlier.

What if Thanksgiving had advent, too?
What if we were intentional?
We could be.
And we could start today. I think this is the perfect place:

Psalm 100 – Thanksgiving (The Voice)

1 Raise your voices;
make a beautiful noise to the Eternal, all the earth.
2 Serve the Eternal gladly;
enter into His presence singing songs of joy!

3 Know this: the Eternal One Himself is the True God.
He is the One who made us;
we have not made ourselves;
we are His people, like sheepgrazing in His fields.

4 Go through His gates, giving thanks;
walk through His courts, giving praise.
Offer Him your gratitude and praise His holy name.

5 Because the Eternal is good,
His loyal love and mercy will never end,
and His truth will last throughout all generations

We could raise our voices because He is good.
We could serve Him gladly with songs of joy, because his loyal love will never end.
We could know in the deepest parts of our heart we are His people, we are not self made anythings.
We could enter into His presence with purpose giving praise.
We could offer Him our gratitude simply because He is holy.

And, with our hearts so positioned on this holy ground, the Christ Child freely enters in. Because, for the first time maybe in years, we’ve made space for Him to do so.

I’m ready to start. Are you?

Looking Forward,
Stacey

P.S. Meet me back here next Monday and we’ll chat more about #LivingThankful!