I like Thanksgiving. Like many of your families, we have an extravagant meal with lots of family and friends. We even do the whole routine of “Let’s go around the table and everyone share something they are thankful for.” We resolve to be more thankful throughout the year. 

And we do the same thing the next year.

So how do we live in thanksgiving in between holiday celebrations?

Here are three suggestions from Scripture that we try and practice and that we often share with our community of faith:

1. Be thankful before, during, and after we ask God for things. That’s what Paul reminds us in Philippians 4:6. Let God hear your requests, but with thanksgiving. Thank God for hearing. Thank God for the times He answered in the past, especially if the requests are like some in the past. Thank God for the answer He is about to give. I ask God for lots of things. So adding thanksgiving to my requests helps keep me living in thanksgiving.

2. Be thankful during the hard times. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 reminds us that it is God’s will that we be thankful in all circumstances. We live in a hard world. A world of death, pain, tears, and sin. It takes effort to be thankful when things are not going the way you want or need or hope. But be thankful that God is in control. Be thankful it is not worse. Or be thankful that someday God will wipe away our tears in the place where death, sin, pain, and sorrow are no more. Be thankful for people that are with us in the hard times. Even be thankful that you are counted worthy to be tested. Be thankful for past growth through pain, and be thankful that God is molding me through this. I don’t have to like what is going on, but I do need to be thankful. Expressing thanksgiving through pain is living in thanksgiving. 

3. Be thankful every time you eat. Really thankful. Thankful like Jesus, who prayed for the loaves and fishes that would feed 5,000 people. Or the prayer at the Last Supper. Or the model prayer for our daily bread. Thank God for the resources to provide a meal. Or thank God for the resources of others that provided your meal. Be thankful for the people you share your meal with. We live on a ranch, so most of our meat comes from our cattle or deer. So we thank God for our cattle. For grazing and water. We thank Him for the deer. We even thank Him at the time we shoot our deer. We eat every day. Living in thanksgiving.

These ideas have helped us live in thanksgiving. Maybe they will be helpful to you and to those you lead.