Thanksgiving is upon us! A time of festive celebrating, feasting, and remembering the wonderful things in life we can recall in giving thanks. It’s a great time to be with family and friends, sharing memories with one another, and putting on the battle suits to do Black Friday shopping.
Confession: I’ve never been Black Friday shopping, nor do I have a desire to do so. Who wants to wait out in the cold and freeze only to run the risk of being trampled and mugged? Not this guy. I’ll take the online shopping in my pj’s and in the comfort of my own home.
Thanksgiving can be great, but if you’re not observant, you can miss out on making memories that you’ll talk about and share years down the road. Here are some things to note:
1.) Put the phone down
One of the things I’ve been cautious of as a general rule of thumb in my life is being on my phone incessantly. I understand the desire to keep up with friends and celebrate milestones in their lives when you live miles and miles away and you’re not sure when you’ll see them again, so please don’t misunderstand. But when you travel miles and miles to spend time with family and friends and the day comes when you all get together and the first instinctive thing you do is break out the phone to troll, there’s some issues going on.
I had this happen to me not too long ago. Everyone I was with (at least 5-6 people) had their phones out looking at whatever and I was just sitting there thinking, “I came to this? To be replaced by a phone?”
So, do yourself a favor and put the phone down. You can break it out when you’re standing in those long lines on Black Friday (if you so dare to take your eyes off the items you’re purchasing).
2.) Spend time giving thanks
We often get together for Thanksgiving to overeat, watch the Macy’s parade, and see who’s playing who in football. Rarely do we take the time to give thanks for what we’ve been blessed with over the course of the year. If someone has blessed us, we should let them know. Perhaps we should let them know more often than just a holiday or just a season, but especially during those times as well.
Spend time thanking God for what He’s done in your live over the course of the year. Maybe you didn’t have such a great year. Maybe you had some heart-breaking moments and you didn’t know how you’d continue on. I feel for you.I honestly do. I’ve been there and had to say goodbye to some very special people in my life before. The holidays make it no easier to continue, but here we are. We find ourselves arriving at another day, another year. And it’s by the grace of God in our lives that we see this happening and taking place. So, give thanks to God.
3.) Make traditions
Family traditions are a great way to bond a family together and to bring about solidarity. They can be meaningful and really fun. They can include a pact, a creed, or some kind of “glue” to help make the tradition stick in your family. In my family, we always put up my mamaw’s tree and decorate it right after everyone has eaten. It’s simple, and yet, we know that is the starting point for the Christmas season for us.
Another tradition we (my brother, my cousin, and I) do is we start scheming pranks. One year, we snatched family member’s phones (who had them laid out carelessly) and took a bunch of pictures of some of the most random things, and then put the phones back. Of course, we couldn’t take pictures of ourselves lest we give ourselves up. Another year, we prank called my grandparents’ house using a prank dial app with pre-recorded voices. My uncle picked up and began having a conversation with the recording and ended up getting so mad at the “person” on the line. Imagine us trying to keep a straight face while we sat there listening to my uncle talk on the phone!
Anyway, these are just some things I noted to be aware of during this season. What would you add to the list?
Seth Collins 