Our Gratitude Should Not Be Seasonal 

My yard is covered under a blanket of leaves and pine straw calling out to me to get busy with my rake and leaf blower. It isn’t my favorite job to do, but I know that it always comes around this time of year. It is one of those seasonal tasks, the downside of having enjoyed all the beautiful colors of the autumn foliage in recent days. It is the season for other activities, too. It is time for many of us to thaw out the turkeys, preparing them for Thanksgiving dinner. It is the season for family gatherings, for starting to dig out the Christmas decorations, and for the heart of the football season.

It is also the season for gratitude. I have Facebook friends who follow the practice of posting an item for which they are thankful each day during the month of November. This is the time when we especially consider our blessings God has given us. Some of us will even take turns as we sit around a table filled with food choosing one of the many blessings in our lives to single out with a word of thanks. I am glad we have a season in which thanksgiving is given attention, in spite of it sometimes unfortunately getting minimized by the anticipation of and preparations for Christmas.

Nevertheless, while we take time to give our thanks, let’s not allow ourselves to become guilty of relegating it to merely a seasonal activity. Some things are confined to a certain time of year. I am thankful that I don’t have to rake falling leaves all year long, but only in the autumn months. I enjoy eating turkey on Thanksgiving Day, although I wouldn’t mind having it a little more often throughout the rest of the year. I am glad for special occasions when scattered families can come together to see one another. Many people enjoy the excitement of the football games this time of year. We enjoy seasonal things.

However, some things shouldn’t simply be considered seasonal. And the giving of thanks is one of those. While it is good to give special emphasis to our blessings this month, those same blessings are present throughout the year. It is good to acknowledge God as the giver of all good gifts as we sit around a Thanksgiving table. Yet that same God is active in our lives every day – on a frigid Monday morning in January, on a warm spring day, and while we are vacationing in the midst of summertime. God is there. And those blessings we count at Thanksgiving are there as well. The people we love. The provisions for us and our families. The health to be about our activities. The roof over our heads. The food on our tables. The peace of God in the hearts of those who have trusted Jesus as their Savior. The sure hope of a future life in heaven. It is all still there. “His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

If God’s blessings aren’t seasonal, neither should be our gratitude. He is worthy of our thanksgiving throughout the year. Yes, let’s emphasize it in the month of November. However, let’s not neglect it the other eleven months. Let’s cultivate a more consistent spirit of gratitude in our hearts and minds. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (I Thessalonians 5:16-18). Just as God wants our rejoicing and praying to be constant, He desires that our giving of thanks be an ongoing activity in our lives no matter when or what our circumstances are. Therefore let’s seek to make every season a time for gratitude.