A Heart of Thankfulness

The past three years my family has gone on beach getaways. The first year we went to The Outer Banks, and it was our way of "skipping" Christmas. Not that we don't enjoy the Christmas season, but sometimes the holiday can become overwhelming with trying to find the perfect present and running around in traffic. You can easily loose sight of why you're celebrating in the first place. During Christmastime, we celebrate Jesus' birth and spend quality time together as a family. This year we planned to take our annual trip on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is hands down my favorite holiday ever! Spending time with your loved ones and eating amazing food all day, what could be better than that?!

For our trip, we rented an AirBnB large enough to accommodate everyone at Ocean Isle Beach. Being a newlywed, this year has been full of firsts. Stephen and I experiencing the holidays together as a married couple makes it even more exciting. As we planned out our trip, everyone decided on which dish they would bring for Thanksgiving dinner and some of the attractions the area had to offer. Because we live in different cities quality time was the main focus. Some of our activities included; watching movies, playing card/board games, and visiting an alligator museum. It's funny to see everyone get so competitive whenever we play games together. The ladies claimed the title of reigning champions of Taboo this year. It was basically a blow-out! (Lol)

As cliche as it may sound, there really is always something to be thankful for. During the Thanksgiving holiday it is a good way to reflect on the year so far. On the morning of our last day of the trip, after everything was cleaned and packed into our cars, we gathered one last time before leaving and everyone shared something they were thankful for. The overarching takeaway from the trip was, even though our family is nowhere close to perfect, we are so incredibly blessed to be able to spend 4 days together and truly enjoy each other's company. It is a blessing within itself to have a family who values and desires to be close-knit.

I'm thankful that God has blessed me to have close relationships with my siblings. I consider both my sisters to be my best friends. We talk almost daily. I truly value our relationship. We encourage each other, and laugh together, and we pray for each other. It is a blessing to have loving parents who have been a Godly example in so many ways. Their life and marriage inspires me everyday. For many years, I've prayed and believed God for a spouse; I'm so incredibly thankful for Stephen! Stephen's faith encourages and challenges me to trust God in every situation. He is exactly what I needed in a husband.

A habit that I've incorporated into my routine, is to take a moment out of the day to jot down a few things I'm thankful for in that current moment. Oftentimes, I'm not particularly feeling thankful, and it's easy to go down a rabbit-hole of complaints. Can you relate to that? Maybe you have unanswered prayers that you're still believing for. Maybe you're still searching for the right job. Maybe you are believing God for a spouse or to restore a relationship. Pausing for just 5 minutes during the day to acknowledge good things in your life definitely puts everything back into perspective. No matter where you are or where you would like to be in life, having a heart of thankfulness can become a practice.

"Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 1Thessalonians 5:18

What are some ways you can practice thankfulness today? How can you incorporate a heart of thankfulness in your weekly routine?

Our family has grown from that first trip. Looking forward to many more family beach getaways!

(Dogs were not pictured this year, but they were with us too.)