10 Day Challenge: Thankfulness in Action

Today is November 20th. That means you have ten more days to focus on Thanksgiving and the beauty of being thankful before life is all about the hustle and bustle of Christmas. So I think it is time for a little challenge. I challenge you to take the last ten days of November to live out your own blessing of thankfulness. Show people you are grateful for them. Pay attention to circumstances that are blessing you. Realize how the Lord is weaving his blessings throughout your life. Live blessed. And live to bless others. But first, I want you to read a devotional I came across this morning that really resonated with where my heart has been lately.

---

Thanksgiving

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. Luke 17:15-16

Thankfulness is foundational to the Christian life. Thankfulness is a conscious response that comes from looking beyond our blessings to their source. As Christians, we have been forgiven, saved from death, and adopted as God’s children. There could be no better reason for a grateful heart!

Lepers in Jesus’ day were social outcasts. Their highly contagious condition ostracized them from those they loved. When ten lepers encountered Jesus, they desperately implored Him to show them mercy. Jesus sent them to the priest. As they obeyed, they were healed! These ten men had been forbidden to enter their own villages, to live in their own homes, to work in their own jobs, or even to touch their own children. Imagine what unrestrained joy must have filled them as they ran back home again!

One of the lepers, a Samaritan, stopped and ran back to thank Jesus. Samaritans were normally shunned by the Jews, but Jesus had healed him! Jesus asked him, “Where are the others?” Ten lepers had been healed. Ten lepers were reveling in their new found health. Ten men were joyfully rushing to share the good news with those they loved. But only one considered the Source of that blessing and stopped to thank and worship the One who had given him back his life.

We, too, have been healed and made whole by the Savior. We are free to enjoy the abundant life the Savior has graciously given us. Could we, like the nine lepers, rush off so quickly to glory in our blessings without stopping to thank our Redeemer? God looks for our thanks. Our worship, prayers, service, and daily life ought to be saturated with thanksgiving to God (Phil. 4:6). (Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby)

---

The leper that ran back to Jesus took action. He back to thank Jesus. It made a difference. He stopped the busyness to recognize the blessing, and the source of the blessing. He went out of his way to say thank you. Do we recognize where our blessings come from? Do we take the time to say thank you to our Savior who has given us everything?

So here’s the challenge. Be active in your thankfulness. Make a difference. Don’t just ponder on your thankfulness in your heart. Say thank you. Pay it forward. Pass the blessing along so that others may share in the gratitude or the blessing. You can do ten different things for the next ten days, or choose one to do every day for the next ten day. Find a way to incorporate it into your life. Integrate gratitude into your family, your marriage, your parenting, your work, your church, your friendships, your hobbies, your everyday tasks, and your social life. Take the challenge. Here are some ideas to spur you on to coming up with your own ideas.

• Call a friend to say thanks for their friendship
• Go out of your way at work to thank you for something specific. Be Specific
• Bake something with your kids to take to a friend to say thanks
• Reach out to someone in your family
• When you are in the drive thru line buy the food for the people behind you
• Write a letter to a friend
• Buy someone coffee
• Show up to a friends house with groceries
• Do something for your kids teachers
• Open up your home for people to come by for coffee
• Send someone a Bible Verse
• Have a thankful wall for your kids to write things on
• Start a gratitude journal
• Pray with someone
• Volunteer to serve meal at a shelter
• Help with something at your church
• Reach out to your pastor’s wife
• Tell your husband every day why you love him and why you are thankful for him
• Take your child on a special date to tell them you are thankful for them
• Put a note in someone’s lunch
• Send a text with a Bible Verse
• Have people write on place cards why they are thankful for people at the thanksgiving table
• Have everyone share things they are grateful for and blessings at the dinner table
• Say thank you with eye contact to people who serve you/check your groceries/ etc.
• Give a gift without expecting anything in return
• Listen to someone
• Pay attention to the little things
• Compliment someone with something you appreciate about them

What are your ideas? Can you take this challenge?