Every morning when we wake up, we get to choose our attitude. Any attitude we wish is available for the taking. We can put it on and wear it the entire day, and just like the right pair of shoes can change the outfit, the right attitude can change your experience. Most days we wake up unaware of this choice. We wait and see how our jeans fit, how our hair looks, and what the weather is. Good day, good attitude. Bad day, bad attitude. Average day, average attitude. We allow our experience to dictate and determine our perspective. But within us is the power to change our entire experience, regardless of circumstances.

Today we have the extreme gift of waking up to a day when the preferred attitude is predetermined. It’s Thanksgiving, and what do we do on Thanksgiving besides eat a feast … we give thanks. Yes, we knew to wake up with an attitude of gratitude today. I’m here to tell you if you maintain that attitude of sheer gratitude throughout this day, your experience will be radically changed. Will everything be perfect? Nahhhh, probably not. I mean we all have that slightly crazy family member, right? But with a different perspective you will see the goodness in every detail.

Melody Beattie said ““Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”

This is my first Thanksgiving without my Daddy. My first Thanksgiving without any of my kids. However I’m surrounded by a million reasons to still be grateful, and it is my predetermined gratitude that will highlight and magnify them all.

Maybe you too will be missing someone around the dinner table today. There can still be gratitude. Gratitude for all the years they were there. Savor those memories and let there be more gratitude than sadness.

Maybe your own seat is occupied by a woman who carries a heavy load and deep burdens because of life’s current circumstances. There can still be gratitude. Gratitude for all the times God has gotten you through in the past, and the promise he will carry you through this too.

Unlock the fullness of life today with your thanksgiving. We truly have so much to be grateful for.

Did you know if you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world. Did you know if you have any amount of money in the bank, in your purse, or even some spare change hidden in your couch cushions, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealth.

That’s me. Isn’t that you too? Girls, do you know what this means …. this means we are wildly rich and ridiculously blessed! Even in our current less than perfect life scenario, we have so much to be grateful for. Recognize it now. This is you. Wildly rich and ridiculously blessed.

That is your truth. Now, what will you do with it? Who will you thank?

Luke 17: 11-19 tells us a story of 10 men sick with leprosy who met Jesus. Jesus healed all 10 of them, but only 1 came back to thank him. Now Jesus was literally shocked by this and says “were not all 10 cleansed? Where are the other 9?” But to the 1 who returned to give thanks he said “rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

We gather today as the wildly rich and ridiculously blessed. The ones who have an abundance of proof in their lives of God’s goodness and grace. The ones who have been saved and redeemed. The ones who have been given more than we could ever deserve. The ones who have proven to be ungrateful in the past, caught up in the details, rushed through it and missed the overall truth in our lives … we are SO FORTUNATE.

So here we are, among the masses who have received, but among the few who have returned to give thanks. Jesus, we’re here today to say thank you. We’ve come back to you in sheer gratitude for all you’ve done for us.

Thank you for our lives. Thank you for our blessings that are in such great abundance and continual supply that we miss them. We missed the fact that we were able to get out of bed today. We failed to show our gratitude for legs that walk, eyes that see and ears that hear. We failed to show our thanksgiving for the electricity that powered on, the water that flowed, the heat that warmed us, and the car that started.

We missed many things already today, but we won’t miss it all. We won’t go through this entire day oblivious to your goodness in our lives. We stop right here and gather as the wildly rich and ridiculously blessed to simply say, THANK YOU. We run back to the giver of life, we return to give you our praise.