When you desire a bigger house, remember there are those who are homeless. When you want a more stylish car, remember there are not just those that take the bus or worse more have to walk, but also remember that some people have the wheelchair as their only form of transportation. When you want the latest clothes and shoes remember some people just want something to cover their nakedness and others do not even have feet they can wear shoes on.
You feel that only lobster and champagne is good enough for you and you waste food, whereas globally some starving people simply want any food including leftovers and a cup of water to quench their thirst. You enjoy freedom but complain about the govt. and every other little thing, while some people are in jail, in spiritual bondage or trapped in abusive marriages and pray for the day they will know freedom.
You feel your body is not good enough and pay top price or get in unwarranted debt to get costmetique surgery to change what you dislike, while some people simply desire good health and the money and/or insurance to be able to get urgently needed medical care. You show scorn when you see people whom you think their bodies are not perfect, but you fail to see the pain in their eyes and soul for whatever burden they are secretly or openly contending with.
You waste electricity and water, whereas some people would give almost anything to have basic electricity to iron their clothes and water to cook and bathe. You complain about the cost of using and maintaining a generator, whereas some people can’t even afford a generator. You enjoy air-conditioning and heater warmth, but forget there are those who die from heatstroke or freeze to death during the winter due to their inability to afford basic fans in the summer or warm clothes and a jacket during the winter.
You sleep well at night, yet complain there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish your tasks, whereas some people are spiritually tormented and oppressed all night or suffer from insomnia and still have to go through each day’s regiment without complaining.
You complain that your megabucks salary is not enough to support your materialistic lifestyle or that which you have gotten accustomed to forgetting that some people are living only on the handouts they are able to occasionally receive from family, friends, strangers or charity organizations.
You are lucky to have good health and believe everyone who does not have a visually visible injury must be exaggerating it, unbeknown to you the pain and agony hidden from your plain view; or you take your health for granted by indulging in unhealthy activities such as excessive smoking, drinking, eating or even outright dangerous activities. A visit to a hospital ward where people are being fed through tubes, dealing with cancer and other terminal diseases and sicknesses; or broken bones, torn ligaments, impinged nerves should give you a better awareness, especially when you meet some patients who are begging to die rather than continue to live in daily pain.
You take your family and friends for granted and some people even go to spiritual lengths to wage war against others in their quest to destroy their lives, simply out of envy, unmerited bitterness or hatred, but forget that when you live in a glass house, every stone you throw ultimately affects you too.
You complain about your spouse and children, and some even go as far as divorcing their spouses for frivolous reasons, or disowning their children instead of giving them good counsel; whereas you forget that some people have no spouses or children (dead or alive) to complain about.
Some of us have more wealth than we need in our lifetime, yet we waste, act stingy or even go as far as stealing from our families, friends and strangers, instead of sharing our wealth by giving to the less privileged within and outside our families. We should remember that when we die we cannot take a penny with us.
Well, folks it’s time for us to reflect and understand the reason why we should be giving thanks and not just see it as a day of feasting, hypocrisy and bickering. Thanksgiving should be a daily act because it is not by accident that we all ended up on this planet called earth. Even if you do not believe in a living unseen God, your very existence and being is for a purpose. May we not begrudge ourselves and our maker, whomever you consider him, her or it to be, but simply show more gratitude for even the little things.
Some of us are so used to acting perfect and as if everything we have accomplished in life is simply by our own doing, but it is only human to acknowledge our shortcomings and the challenges we have been able to overcome to get where we now are, as this greatly encourages others passing through similar challenges to know that there is hope, and that if others have passed through them and lived to tell, then there is hope that endurance will bear them through also.
If you desire to share your reasons for Thanksgiving with others feel free to post them @ this link https://www.facebook.com/groups/227065000662063/ or this onehttp://naijapositive.myfastforum.org/forum34.php
Happy Thanksgiving today to each and everyone, not just today, but every single day of our lives. May we always have reasons to give thanks, even if it not a big testimony, it can simply be a little one such as “having the ability to open our mouth to give thanks.”
Omoayo
24th Nov. ’11