‘Just Because’

Thanksgiving Day 2018 is tomorrow.  I have to wonder how many of us are TRULY thankful for all of the blessings in our life?  Or have we grown accustomed to the ‘just because’?  We gather with family and friends around an elaborate meal ‘just because’ that’s what we do every year on Thanksgiving.  If you are one of the few who hasn’t gotten caught up in the ‘just because’, then praise God for that.  However, for many of us, that is not the case.  We get so caught up living every day life that we get distracted from the blessings all around us.  There’s always a job to do, a meal to cook, laundry to do, a child to care for, an errand to run.  On and on the list goes, all the while, we forget to be thankful.  What if we change our perspective?  What if we begin to see everything as valuable and a blessing from God?  And not a ‘just because’.  Everyday life is so full of blessings, if we can stop looking at the ‘just because’ and see the whole, big picture.  I personally do not enjoy washing dishes.  It seems to be the last thing I want to do.  I grudgingly wash them.  Why do I wash them?  ‘Just because’ they are dirty.  What if I change my perspective to one of thankfulness?   What if I begin to be thankful that I had food to cook to feed my children to dirty those dishes that I am now washing?  I am still doing the same job, but my attitude about it has completely changed.  No longer do I see it as a ‘just because’.  It seems to me that so many in the world today live from an entitlement mentality.  “I am entitled to it ‘just because’ I’m breathing”.   Could it be that as we display and model true gratitude, true thankfulness, that society as a whole would shift?  You may not ever travel the world and influence millions of people, but if you change your corner of your world and I change my corner of mine, what will the end result be?   I would challenge you to lay down the ‘just because’ and pick up a heart of true thankfulness.  Not only for tomorrow, but for every day after that!