(some of the olive groves i used to run through in Spain)
Giving thanks to God. This might be my favorite of all holidays. I like it because it is more about focusing on what we have whereas Christmas, for example, we can often get caught up in what we don't have and what we want.
The theme of praising God has been one really close to my heart over the past 10 years. It all started when I was a depressed, insecure middle schooler, who was negative and jealous all the time. Oprah had this woman on who wrote a book called, "Simple abundance" SHe was talking about writing 5 things each day that you are thankful for. My mom talked me into trying this idea, who knew what a huge, life changing habit this would become for me, transforming my mind, attitude and life. Who knew that I would come to know God through an idea presented on the Oprah show?
Thinking of 5 things I was thankful for was certainly a challenge those first few weeks. I bought a little pad of paper and titled it, "What I have been given today, what I am thankful for today." This became known as my thankful journal.
After a few weeks someone told me they had noticed a change in me, I knew it was from this habit that i was beginning to form, so I that encouraged me to keep at it. THen a beautiful thing began to happen, I found myself being able to think of more than 5 things from each day that i was thankful for. 10 things, then 20 or 30 and eventually 80 or 100 from one day. Soon my little list of praises to God became longer and more detailed. I was even more surprised when I would be going through my day and start to see everything in a new light. A perspective of praise to God, thanksgiving to God in the moment where I was. I would notice things I never had before and think, oh, i've gotta write this down tonight!
This habit grew into a cycle, it was like the more I wrote down that i was thankful for, the more I saw in my life that I had to be thankful for. I saw God in a whole new light, one by which I had never seen him before. A good God, one who cared about my every detail, one that freely poured abundance into my life, a God who is my provider, God who is faithful, one who made me want to pour out to others in assurance that my life was full and would forever be overflowing. I knew I could give everything away and never loose a thing, only continue to be filled each day by him.
It was also cool when I would have a problem, conflict, or really needed God to provide certain things. I could open up all these journals and hold and touch and read this tangible evidence of how God had been faithful to me everyday for the past however many years. I would remember often... and it is quite easy to remember something that is written down.
The thankful journal started out to be about me and about the gifts. But over time it became all about God, teaching me about who he is and the joy of living a life that constantly praises and thanks him. The gifts were merely symbols of the motive by which he gave to me: love, pure, real, abundant love.
It has been 10 years since I started doing this and i still keep it up today. I have recorded around 50,000 different gifts that God has blessed me with since I was 15 years old. Imagine how many millions more that I haven't even written down.
I really think the key to happiness is when life isn't about self. The best way to do this is to look at God and thank him and praise him, then look at others and give from the abundance which we have been given.
