This Thanksgiving doesn’t look like I expected.
I’m not sitting around the table with my wife and kids today. They’re with her parents, and I’m in Nashville picking up my seven-year-old nephew, Finley, so he can spend a few days with his dad.
It’s not wrong to say it out loud: this isn’t ideal. It’s heavy. It’s different. It’s not the Thanksgiving any of us would have planned.
I keep telling myself, this is just a season. And I believe that’s true. Seasons change. Circumstances shift. This won’t always look like this.
But I’m also learning that I don’t want to rush through this season so fast that I miss the moments God has given us inside of it. Even in the hard season…especially in the hard season…I want to be present. I want to be grateful for every moment we still have. I want to enjoy the time we’ve been given, not just endure it.
If I’m honest, it would be easy to slip into a pity party. Easy to focus on what’s missing. Easy to grieve what life used to look like and what we wish it still was. But this season has been teaching me something important about gratitude.
One of the most meaningful statements I’ve heard about thankfulness is this: we don’t give thanks because life is perfect; we give thanks because God is faithful.
That has been so true for our family…especially with my brother.
If anyone has permission to be bitter, cynical, or angry, it’s him. ALS has taken so much from him. And yet, through all of it, he continues to find the good. He notices small blessings. He expresses gratitude. He chooses joy where it would be easier to choose despair.
He’s such an inspiration to so many.
Gratitude doesn’t pretend everything is fine when it isn’t. Gratitude simply acknowledges that even in the hardest chapters, God has not stopped being good…and He has not stopped being present.
This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for family, even when it’s complicated.I’m thankful for time together, even when it comes through sacrifice.
I’m thankful for this season…even though it’s hard…because it reminds me not to take a single moment for granted. And I’m thankful for a faithful God, even when life feels fragile and uncertain.
I’m learning that gratitude isn’t something we wait to feel after things get better. It’s something we choose because God is still faithful…right here, right now.