Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday.

It’s not that I’m against Thanksgiving Day. I’m just afraid that we are not as thankful as we need to be on a daily basis. Setting aside a single day to say “thank you” for this and “thank you” for that doesn’t quite do it for me.

I tried to teach my second graders a little bit about thankfulness today. Today was the end of our week and we did what we normally do at the end of the week, write letters home. Instead of writing about our week though, the kids wrote thank you letters to their parents. In order to truly say “thank you” I told them we need to also tell why we are thankful. I am thankful for my house because it protects me and my family from the elements and because it is the symbol of the love that resides there. I compared only saying “thank you” to saying “I’m sorry” without saying what you are sorry for and without trying to make amends. Not all of them got it but hopefully a seed was planted.

I also hate what happens at church on Thanksgiving. I suffered through another Thanksgiving “service” tonight. Parts from here and there were thrown together to produce a celebration of a Creator so generic that anybody from any faith could basically say the same. Except for how we show our thankfulness. For that the pastor was much more specific. We show our thankfulness to this God of all religions by giving more money to the church. Then he’ll know we’re thankful, especially if we have enough money to let him really know how we feel. Service to our neighbor just doesn’t cut it. Aarrgh!

So please excuse me if I’m not the most reflective, thankful person for the rest of today or tomorrow. You’ll just need to track me down next week if you want to talk to me about it more.