Four Simple Steps to Create a Better Gratitude List
Happy Thanksgiving week! This Thursday we’ll celebrate gratitude as we gather around a table laden with turkey and the best side dishes ever. Hopefully you will have the privilege of enjoying family and friends, feasting and football, before we succumb to Christmas fever.
If you haven’t started already, you will most likely generate a thankful list over the next several days. I have created a list every year for decades. I’ve used notebook paper taped to kitchen cupboards or a large sheet of butcher paper tacked to the wall. One year I even wrote my list on a faux pumpkin.
Two Areas of Gratitude
I’ve noticed everyone’s lists contain two areas of gratitude. The first elements we identify are those I label “the obvious.” We write down our family members, our home, and all our pets. We are quick to jot down the things we know we’re supposed to be thankful for.
I label the second area of gratitude “small things that delight us.” For example, coffee always makes the top of my list. We name objects that give us comfort and/or bring a quick smile to our face.
When we pinpoint these areas of gratitude, we see life is good. We are reminded we find joy in what we already have. Moreover, we reflect on what is most important to us before we enter into the hoopla of the Christmas season.
Looking Beyond Our Gratitude Lists
This year God’s Holy Spirit has been prompting me to look beyond my obvious list and my comfort list. God is prodding me to see how He is bigger than my personal preferences. Christ wants me to know gratitude for who He is, beyond the little things He blesses me with in my life.
Be Grateful for Who God Is
“Do you not know? Have you not heart? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never becomes faint or weary; there is no limit to His understanding.”
Isaiah 40:28 CSB
Think about the various stories in God’s Word where His power and greatness are on display. For example, God rescued the Israelites from the Egyptians by parting the Red Sea and providing dry ground for all of them to walk on. God used an orphan named Esther to save her people from annihilation, and He used David, the shepherd boy, to defeat a giant. In addition, there is the entire story of Jesus’ life from birth to resurrection that displays God’s awesome preeminence.
The Struggle for Gratitude
One would think if we were familiar with these stories of God’s miraculous and generous grace, we would find it easy to declare with the Psalmist, “Our Lord is great, vast in power; his understanding is infinite.” (Psalm 147:5, CSB) However, we struggle to fully grasp how great God’s power really is because we become consumed with the problems we are facing. We allow worry and anxiety to fill our thoughts and imagination instead of God’s majesty, glory, love, and faithfulness.
Allow me to give you a simple example. We have moved into a delightful Farmhouse while we find our new permanent home. We don’t have anything against residing at the Farm, but living outside the city limits is beyond our experience.
The Farmhouse is heated with electricity, and a propane fireplace. Every heating bill I’ve ever paid has been to the gas company. I don’t know what to expect for my heating bill and I admit it has created a worry frenzy within me. I have found myself unable to stop thinking about how much my bill could actually be.
God is Bigger
God, with gracious gentleness, reminds my heart over and over of His faithfulness. Our whole moving experience has been a story of God proving Himself preeminent to me and my sweet Pastor husband. Every morning as I sit with Jesus and His Word, He tells me again how BIG He really is.
I know my current circumstance and concern is mild in comparison to the deep valley you could be living. And I also know, since I’ve allowed my thoughts to be distracted from God’s goodness and provision, you could be distracted as well. We often find it difficult to fully live into gratitude that goes beyond the obvious things we place on our lists.
Move Beyond Typical Thanksgiving
This Thanksgiving let’s move beyond the typical thankful list. Instead, let’s identify the characteristics of God that have blessed us, challenged us, and sustained us throughout 2023. We may need to carve out time to reflect and process so we can create this list, and God will bless our effort.
First, recall the various ways God has shown up for you over the last eleven months. You may need to glance back through a calendar, a journal or two, or even your checkbook! Consider how God has blessed you, strengthened you, or discipled you.
Second, identify the characteristic of God that best defines how or why God showed up as He did. If a check showed up in the mail just when a bill came due, God was your provider. Perhaps you experienced a restored relationship, God was your healer. Some of you may have struggled with grief and God was your comforter.
Third, spend time in God’s Word and search for a scripture that anchors the truth about God’s characteristic in your mind and heart. In January, I challenged you to consider 2023 to be the Year of the Word. Identifying God’s characteristics is good, knowing verses that define and explain the truth of God’s characteristics is better.
Lastly, make a list of how God has been bigger in your life. Express your gratitude and praise to the One who gives us life in abundance. You can tell Him you are glad for chocolate and puppies and the smell of fresh bread; they are gifts from a good and gracious God after all. And I’m praying we see God for how great He really is, how He blesses us with who He is and that’s something to truly be grateful about.
