{"id":12221,"date":"2023-11-22T01:03:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T08:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2c5270aa-9abe-11e8-99ad-ca52c1e5b2af"},"modified":"2023-11-17T15:06:22","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T22:06:22","slug":"a-thanksgiving-reflection","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/a-thanksgiving-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"A Thanksgiving Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each night, I put my 6-year-old son, Henry, to bed. Because my wife and I have done just about everything wrong when it comes to getting our children to sleep, that means I lay down on the floor next to his bed for a while until he nods off. (If any of you with small children want to learn how to get them to sleep on their own, send me a note. I\u2019ll tell you what we did, and you can do the exact opposite.)<\/p>\n

Our wind-down routine goes something like this: After the pajamas\/bathroom\/toothbrush\/\u201cOh, Dad, I just need to do one<\/em> more thing\u201d routine, Henry clambers into bed, and I tell him a story. Most of the time, it\u2019s a Star Wars <\/em>story that I make up each night, if you must know.<\/p>\n

And after that, we spend some time praying together. Which mostly means that I pray for him and for our family and friends.<\/p>\n

One thing I ask Henry to do each night is to reflect and tell God something he was thankful for during the day. It can be anything he enjoyed or liked or felt good about, and it only has to be a single-sentence prayer. That may not seem like an onerous request, but invariably, Henry resists. \u201cOh, Dad, I don\u2019t know.\u201d Or, \u201cDad, I\u2019m just too tired,\u201d never mind that 30 seconds before he was protesting that he wasn\u2019t tired enough yet to go to bed. Generally speaking, I can coax a little thanks out of my little guy. But sometimes he just doesn\u2019t want to do it.<\/p>\n

Not So Different<\/h4>\n

I wish I could say that Henry\u2019s reticence to pray was due to his being so young. Perhaps some of it is. But I think it goes deeper than that. Because if I\u2019m being honest, I have to admit that I\u2019m not that different. I\u2019m not sure, exactly, why giving thanks or reflecting doesn\u2019t come naturally to me. Sometimes, I\u2019m just so busy that I forget to take time to do it. Sometimes, though, I do make time for prayer, and I realize that I\u2019ve skipped straight to my list of requests without even taking time to say thank you to my heavenly Father for the good things He\u2019s given me.<\/p>\n

In that tendency, I\u2019m also not so different from the 10 lepers Jesus healed in Luke 17:11-19<\/a>. When they met Jesus, they pleaded, \u201cJesus, Master, have pity on us!\u201d Jesus did have pity on them, instructing them to go and show themselves to the priest. On their way there, they were cleansed, i.e. healed of a disease that had rendered them outcasts for probably much of their lives. Of those 10 men, only one grateful soul \u2014 a Samaritan, no less \u2014 returned to Jesus to thank Him for the tremendous gift healing He granted them. Jesus\u2019 response? \u201cWere not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?\u201d<\/p>\n

Practice Thankfulness<\/h4>\n

I believe thankfulness<\/a> is a discipline that needs to be cultivated intentionally. And as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving with our friends, family and loved ones, I wanted to share one short scriptural passage that reminds us to reflect on all that God has done for us.<\/p>\n

In Psalm 16:5-6, David writes, \u201cLord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but sometimes it\u2019s easier to focus on what\u2019s fallen outside<\/em> the providential boundary lines of our lives than to reflect on what\u2019s fallen within<\/em> them. It can be more natural, especially for those of us with a melancholy streak, to fixate on what we don\u2019t have, not on the good things God has so graciously bestowed upon us. I especially remember my tendency in that direction during the many years and holidays I spent single, just wishing that I had someone special to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with.<\/p>\n

But I also believe that no matter where we are in our lives, there are ways in which \u201cthe boundary lines have fallen for [us] in pleasant places.\u201d Perhaps we\u2019ve been given a good job. Or the blessing of a friend who knows and loves and accepts us unconditionally. Or just having muddled through a tough season far enough to be able to look back and see ways that God was at work that we simply couldn\u2019t see in the hardest moments.\u00a0It could be a million different things.<\/p>\n

So this Thanksgiving, I\u2019d encourage you to think about this question through the lens of this passage: How have the boundary lines fallen in pleasant places for you in the last year? It\u2019s a question worth reflecting on, even if we aren\u2019t always immediately certain that those lines have been drawn where we\u2019d like to see them.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2012 Adam Holz. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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