Thanksgiving is more than a Holiday
Here Thanksgiving is again, and I’m already preparing myself for the classic table question: “So… what are you thankful for this year?” Normally I’d just pull something from the cliche list: family, Jesus, friends, church, coffee, etc. And truly, those are beautiful blessings. I’m grateful for them too.
But this year, I can’t shake the sense that God doesn’t want our gratitude to stop at the obvious gifts. The friend who always shows up. The cup of coffee that softens an early morning. Those things don’t require much effort to appreciate. Gratitude flows easily when life feels soft and comfortable.But real, mature faith is formed when we learn to thank God in the hard things too, not because the hard things feel good. But because He is still good in them.
It’s not natural to be thankful for the season that feels painfully slow. Or the one that aches in places you don’t talk about. It’s hard to be grateful when a friend wounds you deeply, or when God closes a door you were so sure He would open. It’s heartbreaking to keep trying for a baby and face negative test after negative test. It’s confusing to pray with your whole heart for something that never comes to pass. It’s disappointing when the church you love reveals its broken places. And it’s devastating when a relationship ends, especially when you truly believed that person would be your spouse. But even here, in the places we don’t want to be… He invites us to be thankful. Not for the pain, but in it. Because He is still present, still working, still good.
I am learning this Thanksgiving that gratitude in the hard places isn’t about pretending everything is okay. It’s choosing to believe that God is doing something in us that we can’t yet see. It’s speaking a declaration to your own soul and to the world around you that even in the disappointment, the delay, the confusion, or the heartbreak, He is shaping you, healing you, strengthening you, and drawing you closer to Him. This kind of gratitude shifts our focus away from what we can hold in our hands and toward Who we’re holding onto. It becomes a calming heart posture that says, “God, I trust You… even here.”
This year my “I am thankful for _______.” statement looks a little different. I’m thanking God for the places that stretched me, the moments that tested my patience, and the situations that humbled me. For the closed doors that redirected me, the heartbreaks that clarified what my heart truly needs, and the disappointments that pushed me closer to His voice. I’m learning to see these hard places not as evidence of God’s absence but as invitations to trust Him in a deeper, quieter way.
I’m learning that when I trust God through the challenges, it comes with the blessing of Him shaping me, teaching me, and drawing me closer to Himself. As 1 Thessalonians 5:18 reminds us, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Gratitude is not just for the days that feel light and full, or for one day a year on a national holiday, but also for the days that stretch us, humble us, the ones where we cry ourselves to sleep, and teach us to rely fully on Him. In every season, I can say with confidence, “God, I trust You, and I thank You… even here.”
