What a wonderful time of year! It can be so refreshing to pause and thank God for His many blessings; and to reflect on all of the loved ones we hold so dear. And for us at WILDSPARQ, that means is another great opportunity for us to tell you how thankful we are for YOU! It’s true. We truly are genuinely thankful for our partners and friends. We couldn’t do what we love without you, so THANK YOU! And Happy Thanksgiving.

But there’s another important thing to remember as we all begin to gather with loved ones, fill our faces with grandma’s casseroles and pies, and lay around sleepily discussing the truth behind Tryptophan.

Let’s face it; times have been hard for a lot of people for a long time. That’s an unfortunate fact of life, but sometimes, these circumstances can penetrate our hearts and hinder our ability and willingness to take time to be thankful. For some, Thanksgiving might even seem like a punch in the gut, and a reminder of what’s not so great.

A friend's father passed away when he was just a teenager. A few weeks before his father died, the friend woke to a note taped to the outside of his bedroom door. His dad had written the note sometime in the middle of the night. He told his son that he was just up thinking about how hard it must be to be an eighth-grader. Here’s how the note read:

Hey, Buddy! You are going to have a great day. It’s your day, and no one or nothing can make your day anything other than you want it to be. If the weather calls for rain, decide now that you will enjoy getting wet. If the test score is low, make up your mind that the next grade will be higher. If punished unfairly for something, just smile for the many things you’ve not been caught for…

Attitude is everything. Today is not yet anything. Fill it with laughter. 

Dad.

Talk about perspective! But, why share that story this Thanksgiving week? What does that have to do with you? Well, our hope is that we can all take a deep breath – even for just one day – and rearrange our thinking to focus on the wonderful grace we’ve all been given and the opportunities we have to choose joy over circumstance. Even on the worst of days, there is always, always, always something to be thankful for.

What are you thankful for this week? What are some ways you choose joy over circumstance today?