30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day One, Background & Introduction

This is the "official" start of the 30 Days of Thanksgiving, although I started for myself on Canadian Thanksgiving.  This has been a rough year for us & I felt like I needed more time to focus on what I need to be thankful for.  Feel free to join me now or wait 'til after Halloween if that's a big holiday for you.  My blog has grown a lot since last year so most of you probably didn't read any of this then.  Last year I had 73 followers, this year I have 200!  So I'll just cut & paste the background of why I started doing this & what is involved:

I have always loved Christmas. But recently the Christmas season seems to be coming earlier and earlier... eating up the previous holidays of Thanksgiving and even Halloween. (Glenn calls it Hallowthankmas.)

Celebrating the birth of Christ is an important part of the Christian religion, but the materialism that shows up in our shopping malls two months before December 25 has little to do with the real meaning of Christmas.

All this was the beginning of my "rebellion" against Christmas. Not that I refused to celebrate, although a few people did call me a "Grinch," but I have refused to begin decorating our home until after Thanksgiving. And it's usually on December 4th, Glenn's birthday, when we start.

So, when my girls were little I began collecting stories, poems, and hymns about Thanksgiving. I soon discovered that many other families were feeling the same way I did, that Thanksgiving was getting lost in the rush to Christmas. That led me to start a YahooGroup one year where I emailed stories and poems out daily. That was a little too much for me so the next year I put them together in an ebook, which CurrClick now sells. Now that I have a blog I'm going to try posting something every day that I'm thankful for along with some of the poems, songs, prayers that I've collected. This way I can include photos, too, and get feedback from others. I'd love to read on your blogs what you're thankful for & see your photos, too, so make sure you leave a comment if you're participating.

I pray that you and your family will set aside a few minutes of each day in November to think about what God has done for you and how you should be responding to Him.

To participate all you have to do is write down something you're thankful for every day & share it with someone.  You can share it on a blog, facebook, face to face conversation, or however you would like.  I encourage using a Thanksgiving journal just to keep up with everything & also write down Scriptures, prayers, quotes, or poems that talk about giving thanks.  The photo above is one of the pages in my journal from last year.

OK, so let's get started... I'm not going in any order this month so the first things I mention are not necessarily the things I'm most thankful for.   Except that the first thing I'm thankful for right now is my hubby, Glenn!  He is a hard worker & takes care of us & his mom.  He does work a lot of hours but I know he does it for us & for the people he's serving. 

I thank my God always concerning you

for the grace of God which was given for you in Christ Jesus.

I Cor. 1:4

If you blog what you're thankful for, leave us your link below: