How are you doing at counting the gifts and blessings in your life? Are you thankful or have you taken some blessings for granted? Has life thrown you some curveballs that did not seem like blessings at the time, but looking back, indeed were? The charge is to walk in all things with a thankful state of mind.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to recalibrate if family circumstances, or life’s happenings in general, have you in a less than thankful mindset. The late pastor, Adrian Rogers, once answered the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” with, “The real question is, ‘Why do good things happen to any of us?’ Only by the grace of a sovereign God through His Son Jesus!”

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. – Colossians 2:6-7. The Colossian Christians had received Christ as Lord, the greatest gift of all time. They were rooted in Christ and He was the foundation they built their lives upon. Strength in their faith provided a different perspective, one of abounding thanksgiving! They were marked by a grateful heart. In his Truth for Life daily devotional, Alistair Begg writes, “When men and women have not been transformed by Christ, ingratitude – along with its resulting bitterness, complaining, anger, and malice – often marks their lives. In Christ, however, believers trade ingratitude for thanksgiving, bitterness for joy, and anger for peace. Having heard of God’s grace in all its truth and having turned to Him in repentance and faith, we have our sins forgiven. We have the Spirit dwelling in us. We have a new family in the church of God. We have eternal life ahead of us. We have access to the heavenly throne room in prayer.” We have much to be thankful for!

I am blessed to have had the opportunity to participate in Men’s Life, an early morning study for men at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, over the past 21-years. This year’s theme has been, “Facing Anxiety and Stress Head-On”. The speakers have provided practical ways to live into Paul’s instructions in Philippians 4:6-7, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The ‘with thanksgiving’ is a spiritual discipline right beside prayer and journaling. The charge this Thanksgiving is to view all things from an eternal perspective and walk in a thankful state of mind. Then ‘the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’

Prayer guide: Thank You Lord for Your word, Your Son and the many gifts and blessings in my life. Thank You for my personal, passionate and growing relationship with You, the relationships You have blessed me with in marriage and family, may I never take them for granted. Thank You for good health and well-being, and the opportunity to reflect Your light where You have me. Grant me the courage, boldness and confidence to lead spiritually by example as I walk in a thankful state of mind. That is the dad You call me to be and that’s the dad my kids need to see. Amen.

A faithful father leads spiritually in a thankful state of mind.