Thanksgiving Traditions

Mallory and I have been spending the month of November counting our blessings. We concluded to do this after being discouraged from various circumstances. In light of the holiday season, we decided to take the month to consider all of the things we are thankful for. Here’s what came of it…

We were happier:

We knew that we had something to be grateful for every day, and it shifted our perspective. We felt like there are too many positives to focus on the negatives.

We were encouraged:

We never had a day where we couldn’t think of anything. Even on days we didn’t have time or weren’t home to write it down, we knew what we were thankful for, and wrote it when we had a chance.

It brought our family closer together:

We realized that of all the troubles in the world, after making this list, it was easy to see that we needed to cherish what we have. It was easy to shift our focus when we realized that God is blessing us every single day, and that he also blesses us when we don’t even realize it.

It changed our outlook:

It’s scripturally fitting to count your blessings, and now we know why. We were able to see after day one the results of “counting it all joy…” and our perspectives were quickly changing when we started to get discouraged. We were able to encourage one another and to come to a place of realizing that it isn’t so bad after all.

We plan to make this a tradition in November, while keeping the previous year’s papers whenever we feel discouraged. It’s easy to shift your perspectives when you have the proof right in front of you. The Bible does a pretty good job of that too. 😃