You may have just read that question and thought, “This Ham guy has lost it this time. Shouldn’t he be asking about what I am most thankful for?” Well, yes, maybe I should. Actually, maybe I am.
Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that is guaranteed to upset the applecart when it comes to two things – routines and relationships. While most of us like to imagine that we are flexible and we always treasure our time with visiting relatives, that may not be entirely accurate.
Most of us are very much creatures of habit. You may want your coffee and paper at 8:00 AM without interruptions, or you always watch a particular show at a certain time in the morning. But not today. You venture into the kitchen only to find that people have already downed half of your pot of coffee, they have left the newspaper strewn around the family room, and they have put the television on some channel to watch a Thanksgiving Day parade. “What is going on?” you wonder.
Your routines have been interrupted, and it is no wonder, because these relatives that you tolerate once or twice a year are the culprits. Why can’t they just leave you and your stuff alone? As I asked, “What are you most grumpy about?
But actually, perhaps our curmudgeonness has less to do with jostled routines and more to do with an attitude of thanksgiving that is missing. I remember when my boys were young, they learned a song in Vacation Bible School that posed the question this way – “Are you humbly grateful or grumbly hateful? What’s your attitude? Do you grumble and moan or let it be known what great things God has done for you?”
My tip for you this holiday week is – as your orderly world is infringed upon, examine the elements of the holiday and in your life that are truly important. Take stock of what God has done for you and let it permeate your week.