PREPARING FOR THANKSGIVING by Christie Smith

With Thanksgiving approaching, I've found myself wondering how I get into this "pit" of joyless living over-and-over again. Haven't I had my eye-opening experience and really seen what the Joy of the Lord is and what it can do in my life? Why can't I continue living in that Joy everyday? I want to really feel thankful when turkey day gets here, so what can I do to re-focus...again...on what it means to be thankful? What am I doing that keeps me from living that way everyday?

I find in my life I tend to just "survive" at times. I do what I have to do to get it all done. I move from one chore to the next without a lot of thought. There's my mistake. I think that if we take time to ask ourselves questions, it triggers answers and thoughts and emotions...and more times than not...even more questions. This habit of asking myself questions helps to get my focus back to where it needs to be. Too often, I get caught up in the expectations of life, whether those expectations are from others or myself. When I actively stop and think about my life, think about what my days look like, what my relationships look like, what my personal walk with the Lord is looking like...well, more times than not, I find I need to do a little tweaking from time to time. But it all starts with asking yourself the questions, hard questions at times and actually being brave enough to answer them! So, who's with me? I've asked some of the women in our church family to help me in this journey to a more meaningful Thanksgiving. When you begin to understand what being thankful means to you...not just what others tell you what being thankful should feel like...you truly begin to find the Joy of the Lord for yourself. We will never change and never get better by doing nothing. We can't keep doing the same thing everyday and expect anything to change. So, how do we change? It all starts in the mind, and changing our thought process means intentionally thinking...not just mindlessly walking through our life. So, can we be honest with ourselves and with God? Can we be that brave???

I hope you'll join us here everyday as we try to prepare our hearts to truly be grateful this Thanksgiving.