My mother was an amazing woman. She was an excellent teacher, a wonderful musician, and a caring, dedicated wife and mother. However, none of these skills ever extended into the kitchen. Though we never went hungry, my mom was not much of a cook. It may have had something to do with growing up in the Midwest during the Depression, but I think the primary issue was that she usually had more important things on her mind. At my wife’s bridal shower, each guest was asked to give one piece of advice to the new bride. My mom’s nugget of wisdom? “There is always something better to do than housework.”
To be fair, I didn’t even realize that I was being deprived until I left home. It wasn’t until I started eating college cooking (that fact alone should tell you quite a bit) that I realized that chili had flavor. Therefore, in my ignorance, I grew up absolutely loving my mom’s Thanksgiving dressing. It was not until I was married and had my mother-in-law’s dressing that I realized how incredibly bland my mother’s was. But as we are entering the season of Thanksgiving, I began to wonder how I could, in all good conscience, give thanks for my mother’s cooking. How should I give praise for things that are… blah?
Now the Bible says quite a bit about praise. Primarily, we are called upon to be in a constant state of thanksgiving. The author of Hebrews tells us to “Continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise” (Heb. 13:15) There are two very interesting words selected here. First of all, what does it mean to ‘continually’ do anything? It isn’t asking us to be on our knees in prayer or singing praise songs 24 hours a day, but it is asking us to have every aspect of our life be an offering of praise. In our mood, our behavior, our relationships, we are to be aware of God and His blessings.
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But even this turns out to be even more difficult than it sounds because the second interesting word is ‘sacrifice.’ In the context of Hebrews 13, the author is presenting praise as a replacement for the practice of animal sacrifices as a means of being acceptable to God. As Jesus’ blood replaces this form of sacrifice and has made us continuously able to approach the Father, we are being asked to live lives of praise, but that praise will come with loss or sacrifice. In this vein, let’s take a look, continuing our Thanksgiving metaphor, of three large categories of what we are being asked to give thanks for.
Thank God for Pie.
Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever. Psalm 136:1
I am not trying to presume that this is a universal understanding, but in the Hunter family celebration, there is no moment that creates more unadulterated joy than the arrival of the pie. (To be brutally honest, PIES, many pies). We even take a lengthy break between the main meal and dessert to make sure that we have some form of appetite. This is easy thanksgiving. When we can look at our plate, our family, our situation and see the blessings of God, there should be no thought but to give praise. But we must go far beyond the Pie
Thank God for the Lima Bean Casserole
We rejoice in our sufferings. Rom. 5:3
Again, this is not a universal statement as members of my family request and enjoy this every year, but really? Lima Beans? I generally feel uncomfortable covering this dish with the same blessing that covers the turkey and mashed potatoes, but we are called upon to be thankful for parts of our lives which cause us pain. Admittedly this is a harder ask, but we learn that there are three very distinct reasons that we are called upon to come with a sacrifice of praise when we do not necessarily feel the comfort or support of God.
First of all, Paul writes to Timothy that “everything God created is good”(1 Tim. 4:4). And ‘everything’ surely covers our losses, our doubts, and beans in all of their various forms. But to be serious for a moment. We must understand that all of the circumstances of our life are foreseen by God and are there to bring us closer to Him. If nothing else, we are called to look for God in the darkness and the valley and find the guard rails and exit ramps He has established to bring us home. Psalm 28 even finds in this protection a reason to give praise.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise him.
God is always present in our suffering. To be honest, He may only be sitting with us in our pain, but He is there, and His presence can be enough.
1 Peter 4:12-13 calls for us to “rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s suffering, that you may rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” The Lord has promised us that he will never leave and that there is a purpose for all things, therefore, we should praise Him for what he is about to do. This is not easy, so we must also praise God for how we are strengthened by the process. “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.” Ah…patience the Lima Beans of spiritual gifts. We know it is probably good for us, but no one wants it, until, of course, when we desperately need it.
Thank God for Mom’s Dressing
So, we praise God for the gifts, and we praise God for the trials, but what about the middle stuff, the day-to-day, the bland? If we are called to “Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:18) that means we need to lead a life that demonstrates God’s gifts in the flavorless days where we are merely existing. To be honest, there have been many nights where I seek to give thanks, and … I got nothing. I haven’t seen his hand; I haven’t seen his wrath. But with age, I have sought reasons to give thanks on these days as well. I generally choose not to say thank you for yesterday’s blessings, and I certainly don’t want to be thankful that things aren’t any worse. What I have chosen to do is seek his vision in little aspects which continue to amaze me: an excellent joke I heard, the deep breath that releases tension and anxiety you didn’t even realize were there, birdsong in the morning, things whose absence I would certainly note.
But there is a greater source of praise in these times. It becomes difficult to discern, but I must give praise for God’s constancy. Since God softened my heart and worked his way through my brain years ago and I felt compelled to accept him as my savior, he has never left my side. Psalm 13 asks us to “rejoice in your salvation.” A gift He gave almost 2 millennia ago which I accepted in 1977 is worthy of my praise because of what it has done and will do.
This Thanksgiving, I will be blessed to be with family that I don’t see very often. I will obviously celebrate the arrival of the pie; I have promised myself that I will try the Lima Bean Casserole again to see if it changes my mind (it won’t). But as I eat my mother’s dressing, I will praise the hands that prepared it; I will remember the times I helped my mother tear up the bread; I will see it as a continuation of generations of family who have chosen to love each other as God has chosen to love us. And in that dressing, though soggy and underseasoned, I have found a path to give thanks and praise.
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