A Thanksgiving Experiment

Yesterday I received an invitation from my pastor to participate in a program called “30 Days of Thanksgiving”. The challenge invites the participants “to make a covenant with God and with those who are participating three promises to keep during each day of these 30 days.


• Find a person/cause to express thankfulness in person and/or with writings. Tell them reasons for your thanksgiving.

• Write 3 things for which we are thankful to God. Post this on places where you can see.

• Keep a daily journal of thanksgiving. This can be a short reflection/prayer. Write not only your thanksgiving but also places/circumstances in which you were challenged to be thankful.”

Looks pretty easy at first glance, right? Tell someone that you’re thankful for them, think of three things you’re thankful for, and reflect on giving thanks and its challenges. Piece of cake.

Piece of cake for the first few days, anyway. Maybe even for the first week. But think about the numbers as you get toward day 30. Thirty different people or causes that you’re thankful for. NINETY things that you’re thankful for. Writing down what you’re thankful for every day for thirty days. That’s a lot!

And yet, aren’t Christians called to be thankful every day? How many of us are really, truly, consciously thankful each and every day? I’ll step up and admit that I’m not. I’ve got an awful lot to be thankful for – a wonderful family, a comfortable home, a loving husband, good health, financial stability – and yet there are days when I go to bed feeling decidedly unthankful. So I’m grateful for this little kick in the pants to refocus my thinking in the direction of thankfulness.

So, starting on Monday, I will be using my blog to fulfill this challenge. I am charging you, my readers, to keep me accountable. It won’t be easy for me to find time to complete the challenge each and every day, but I am publicly committing to do it. For the next thirty days, I will be writing a daily blog entry fulfilling the three challenges outlined above. I have no doubt that the challenge will grow more and more difficult as the time goes by, both in terms of finding subjects and in terms of finding time. But I believe it is a worthwhile challenge, and I look forward to fulfilling it. Come along with me – it should be an interesting month!