Are You Thankful?

It’s that time of year again!  The holidays are here and it’s time for that annual reflection of the things in our life that we are thankful for.  Isn’t it sad that we need a holiday to remind us to be thankful.  It’s even sadder that for many people this is the only time they think in terms of ‘being thankful’.  Why aren’t we thankful everyday?  Why isn’t being thankful for our blessings a part of our daily routine?

We sometimes fail to be thankful because life has become difficult to manage on any given day.  We allow external pressures to influence our thought process of determining what is important and what can wait.  We get busy with the ‘crisis de jour’ (usually from an external source), putting all of our energy into solving this crisis.  We are also driven by our urge to want ‘more’ out of life (again, for external reasons), causing us to miss some of today’s treasures in favor of getting ‘more’ tomorrow.

Benjamin Franklin once said ‘I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things’.  If you are having trouble feeling blessed on a daily basis, perhaps you have placed a false estimate on what is valuable to you. 

Examine your values in light of what you can live without in your life:

Can you live without seeing your children play ball or dance in a play?
Can you live without your spouse?
Can you live without your current house?
Can you live without your current job? 

Try focusing on the good things in your life everyday.  Be thankful for what you have today.  Let tomorrow come as it may.

- Joe Freeman