Gobble till you wobble.
The fun slogan graces greeting cards and makes fashion statements for the Thanksgiving season.
But do we stop and consider what we’re gobbling up?
Besides the sound a male turkey makes, gobble also means:
- To swallow or eat greedily.
- To take eagerly: grab. *
To Gobble
To gobble paints the picture of an action without reflection beforehand. No careful consideration of the devoured item. No thought of the derived means, a lack of thankfulness for the provision.
Christians often rally to combat Christmas devoid of God. Yet, what about the holiday before Christmas—finding and keeping God in Thanksgiving? Not only the fourth Thursday in November, but also every day.
Recently, the Thanksgiving holiday came and went. Looking back, will we remember the table spread, the decorations, family and friends who gathered, or missed loved ones gone on? Does true gratefulness linger when it’s over?
To give thanks, maybe like the first Thanksgiving, we find gratefulness in our hearts for our haves without begrudging our have-nots. Gratitude for the place we’ve landed—whatever it looks like for each 
of us.
Sentiments of thanks for the cornucopia of countless blessings received and yet to be given from our Maker. Reflections on the abundant provision of necessities and freedoms.
We see ample cynicism in the media, government, and culture—perhaps in us. There’s a lot of ungrateful gobbling going on. Still, either we join the grumbling gobblers or rise above the negativity for this fact. In comparison to other countries and peoples, we have plenty…and plenty to be thankful for.
Grateful Gobbles
A sign of relief is spoken by, “Thank goodness” or “Thank God.”
Thanksgiving…real thanksgiving in our hearts, shows up as a mindset of appreciation more than one day a year. Continual grateful gobbles. Not just a relief that something turned out good in the end. But thanking God, that in the end, we understand all good things come from Him.
Contemplate the fullness in our lives because of a generous God. Then consider how we show ourselves to be generous people. What does grateful gobbling look like in daily life? In our communities and world? Here’s a few ideas:
- Pray with gratitude before meals, privately and publicly.
- Offer daily thanksgiving to the Lord.
- Reflect on your blessings. Make a list.
- Help others who “have not” through local food drives and community missions.
- Build a legacy of generous giving during holidays and all year long.
[bctt tweet=”Grateful people are generous people. Generous people are grateful people. #grateful” username=”inspireafire”]
It’s fun to carry the last name “Friday.” A favorable day of the week. Our family loves to say, “TGIF: Thank God it’s Friday!” But, if we’re not careful, catchphrases like this make light of the biblical truth to thank God. Still, there’s innumerable reasons to thank Him.
TGIF: Thank God in fullness! Fullness of stomach, life, love, family, freedoms, and spiritual blessings in Christ!
“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name! For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting, His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations” (Psalm 100:4-5 AMP).
*Images courtesy of Adobe Spark.
