It’s that time of year again. For many Americans the last Thursday in November marks their favorite holiday. Unlike Christmas, with all its blatant commercialism and hyper-anxiety last minute shopping, Thanksgiving is remarkably stress free. Unless, of course, you are the designated Chef du jour who looks forward to spending hours basting the sacrificial bird and preparing the trimmings and baking the assorted pies (make mine sweet potato, please) and decorating the house and setting the communal table with the precision and rapturous glee of a Martha Stewart acolyte. Whew!
A few hours later, the festivities are at full throttle. Strains of “Over the river and through the woods/To Grandmother’s house we go” fill the air, and the house is abuzz with chatter and laughter as relatives and old acquaintances, some of whom have travelled great distances, swap recession horror tales.
On closer examination, we’re able to discern the fear residing below the surface of their forced laughter and gallows humor. Sure, they’re thankful to be “gathered together” and to be able to OD on a sumptuous feast without worrying about the caloric intake for a day, but deep down inside, they’re harboring a fear that they may have little to be thankful for next year–”with the way the economy seems to be tanking”–and they’re probably right! Because their very doubt is now setting the stage for increased lack, limitation and an uncertain future fraught with peril in their existance. Remember, thoughts are things. If one doubts their life will be more abundant in the future it won’t be.
Let’s blow the dust off the covers of our High School Shakespeare textbooks and read what the metaphysical bard says on the subject of doubt: “Our doubts are traitors/And make us lose the good we oft might win/By fearing to attempt.”
Thanksgiving doesn’t just come once a year. Everyday is a day of Thanksgiving, and various moments throughout the day as well. Each day we have something to be thankful for; we can be thankful God has blessed us with the Gift of Life; thankful that we are at all times Divinely Guided and Divinely Protected on the pathway to our success; thankful for the Divine Intuition we act on which unfailingly brings about the Good we desire by means of our unwavering Faith; thankful that we Know and Accept the LAW OF MIND as taught to us by Jesus: “It is done unto you as you believe.” “When ye pray, believe that ye have and ye shall receive.”
God loves an Attitude of Gratitude. Thus the reason we must give God thanks in advance of our prayers being answered. “Before they ask will I answer.” By first giving heartfelt thanks to God the Good we greatly desire in our lives is assured.
Standing before the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus looked up to Heaven and said: “Father, I thank Thee that Thou didst hear me. And I knew that Thou always dost hear me, but, because of the multitude that is standing by, I said it, that they may believe that Thou didst send me.” And these things saying, with a loud voice he cried out, “Lazarus, come forth!” (John 11:41-43)
True.
Jesus said that Mary chose the better of the two. The ironic thing, though, is that someone had to create the meal and serve. What a beautiful picture of the marriage between being still and producing action, -a picture of faith and works. The key is balance, and you are right, being thankful is at the core of making such opposite polars flow together. Anyway, hope you got your sweet potato pie, or at least something even better.
Well, I guess if Lazarus’s sisters, Mary and Martha, were hosting Thanksgiving feast, Martha would be fretting, because her sister, Mary would be lounging with Jesus watching the football game while Martha was slaving.
Big help, big help. And superliatve news of course.
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