Walk into about every major retail store this week, and you will find Christmas decorations galore. Why? $$$. Simply put, Christmas sells better than Thanksgiving. But I’d like to make an argument for Thanksgiving first, then Christmas. I’m not going to enter into the “Is it OK to listen to Christmas music yet?” debate because it’s totally preferential. I mean, some people like to listen to Christmas music all year long. And we should be thankful all year long, too. But I think there IS an argument to be made for emphasizing certain holidays within certain periods of time.

As a Christian, I find a lot to celebrate about at Thanksgiving. We are actually commanded to be thankful several times in Scripture, and thankfulness is presented as the cure to much of our spiritual sickness (See Colossians 3:15 and Philippians 4:4-7).

But the only way we’re going to really benefit from Thanksgiving is if we keep it in our mind’s eye for a consistent amount of time. The only way it will impact our children is if we consistently make a big deal about being thankful over an extended period of time. That’s why I think that November should primarily be about Thanksgiving, and December should primarily be about Christmas. We’re losing a lot in our secular moment, and the entire season of Thanksgiving is not the least of them.

So for the next 21 days leading up to Thanksgiving I am going to post 21 reasons for giving thanks. Along with those 21 reasons I am going to issue a challenge. Will you join me in 21 days of giving thanks?

Day 1 – Give Thanks for the Gospel

As I have already written, the salvation we have in Christ makes us new creatures who have many reasons for giving thanks. We don’t have to blaze past Thanksgiving on to Black Friday after our turkey, parades, and football, because we recognize there are so many other reasons for why we can be thankful.

Challenge: Take time to thank Jesus for the gospel and it’s impact on your life. Then commit to the “21 Days of Giving Thanks” challenge.

CP