Developing an attitude of thanksgiving
IT’S WORTH CONSIDERING
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks through Him to God the Father (Colossians 3:16-17).
It’s time to take a break from all the upsetting news and refocus on something much more uplifting. Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, it’s worth taking a little time to try to make the deeper meanings of this special holiday a permanent part of our lives. In Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae, he stressed over and over again the importance of having a continual attitude of thanksgiving. No matter what they were doing (or thinking), they were encouraged to develop an attitude of thanksgiving.
Imagine how our lives would be different if we did that. What if 
from the moment we stepped foot on the floor to the moment our head hit the pillow, everything we did or thought was driven by a truly thankful heart. We would be thanking God for another day, for another breath, for a comfortable bed, for a roof over our heads, for every article of clothing we put on, for everything we ate, for our cars, for the numerous ways God has provided for us, for His unending love for us, for our friends…etc. If we filled our hearts with thankfulness, there would be no room for a critical spirit or for fear of the unknown. There would be no room for discontent. There would be nothing to worry about, no “what ifs?” or “if onlys.”
Verse 16 zeros in on one particular area that marks a good place to start–singing with thankfulness. Let’s start at church. What if we brought an attitude of thankfulness to every hymn and every praise song we sang? I think our singing would take on a whole different sound. Let’s try it. Let’s really think about the words we’re singing and transform our worship experience into an offering of thanksgiving.
For most of this, this sounds radical, but for Paul, this is simply part of the normal Christian experience. Imagine if everyone in your church had an attitude like this. What would the singing sound like? What would the atmosphere be like? Let’s start with us. Let’s ask God to give us a heart of thanksgiving and start taking captive every thought that takes us in the wrong direction. Let’s mark this Thanksgiving season (including Black Friday) as the beginning of our new life of continual thanksgiving. I know it will be worth it. I’ve decided to start by thanking you for reading this.
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ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
I decided to change calling the bathroom the John and renamed it the Jim. I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning.
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