Love Them Back to Life
According to knowinsiders.com, Thanksgiving is the United States’ most popular holiday, but there seems to be more anxiety about gathering with family members this Thanksgiving than last year due to the election. Sunny Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg, hosts from T.V.’s The View, suggested skipping Thanksgiving instead of facing a politically charged family situation. My heart breaks over political opinions breaking up families, so I wanted to share how God has given us tools to battle with the different sentiments that may float around the Thanksgiving table and spiritually fight for your family:
Fight with love – When I was young, my parents came back with a bag of shells from Honduras. I brought the shells to the sink and carefully washed them in warm water, buffing them with a cloth and then setting them aside. One of the shells started walking away. I freaked out and screamed for my mom. She picked up the shell and found a hermit crab. After surviving a plane ride in luggage into the dead of a Chicago winter, the warm bath revived the little critter.
We’re to be like a warm bath for those who are withered, broken, and deadened. Our love should bring dead souls back to life, which means being mindful of our words and how we react. It doesn’t mean we’re to be meek and tolerant of evil. God wants us to love Him with all our hearts and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). That means we can love fiercely—not complying with sin, but loving others because God first loved us. We were all made in the image of God and are all His children, and God wants all of us to come to repentance and know Him (2 Peter 3:9). Thanksgiving is an opportunity to reflect His glory (2 Cor 3:18). We are to be salt and light. Like brining a turkey to make the meat tender, love can soften a heart so that God can enter and let in the light.
Fight with praise — A beautiful young girl I used to mentor struggled to make female friends. Her fear of rejection caused her to appear standoffish and intimidated her peer group. I challenged her to compliment a potential friend. She refuted my suggestion, saying that if she paid someone a compliment, it would make that person seem better than her and lessen her standing. I had her try it anyway, and to her surprise, the girls interacted with her. The simple act of telling a person something you admire about them or even complimenting their hair or outfit allows them to lower their guard and makes you appear more open and approachable. (Note: Use wisdom if complimenting a different gender.) God made us to praise Him (Isaiah 43:21). Our lips should praise Him so often that it spills over to those God loves. Psalm 9:11 says, “Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds!”
Fight with gratitude – Gratitude is what Thanksgiving is all about. At the original Thanksgiving, only 53 pilgrims of the original 102 who embarked on the Mayflower voyage survived. Disease and starvation took over half of the colony, yet they paused to celebrate the harvest and give thanks to God and to the Wampanoag tribe, who God used to help them learn to survive a New England winter. Psalm 68:6 says, “God places the lonely in families; He sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.” We were put in our family for a reason. Before you sit down for dinner, give God Thanks for those at your table. A heart filled with gratitude will change your perspective.
Have a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving!
Much love,
Lorri