Doctor Thayne talks about the importance of Gratitude. He briefly goes over how it began with the Pilgrims in the Autumn 1621 and how Abraham Lincoln officially made it a national holiday during the height of the civil war. He explains how gratitude will literally bring you fortune. He shares a story of a young man in a wilderness treatment program one Christmas.
Doctor Thayne talks about the importance of Gratitude. He briefly goes over how it began with the Pilgrims in the Autumn 1621 and how Abraham Lincoln officially made it a national holiday during the height of the civil war. He explains how gratitude will literally bring you fortune. He shares a story of a young man in a wilderness treatment program one Christmas.
Welcome to the not by chance podcast where we talk about intentional Family Living. I'm Talmage Tim, Thayne son and podcast manager. Today is the day before Thanksgiving. So Dr. Thayne will be talking about gratitude and the fortune that can bring us there's a snowstorm that you'll probably be able to hear in the background. So we're feeling blessed to have a warm home. Let's jump into this.
Dr. Tim Thayne:Hey, everybody, this is Tim, Thayne, I'm excited to talk to you today. We're just a day before Thanksgiving. And this is one of those wonderful holidays of the year where it's family food, fun. And there's one other really important ingredient that needs to be here. And that's gratitude and thankfulness. So that's the topic for today I want to talk about Thanksgiving, where it came from, what's the essence of it to make it into one of those holidays that that family members look back on. And over time, they have this warm fuzzy when they think about Thanksgiving? So let's go all the way back back to the beginning when the Pilgrims landed here in the new world, in Cape Cod and 1620. We know that that winter, only half of them survived, if you can imagine the tragedy that was but by the next spring, they met Squanto and other Indian tribes who taught them how to cultivate the land and start to produce food of their own. This is an interesting thought the Pilgrims went from this tragedy to then getting this this outreach of support and help. And then they talked about their first autumn feast in these words. And although be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet, by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty. Gratitude made their meager supplies of food feel like plenty. sounds magical, doesn't it? It was 200 years later that Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War announced that Thanksgiving would then be a national holiday. In a proclamation, he entreated all Americans to ask God to commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife that they were in. He asked them to pray that God would heal the wounds of the nation. So here we are day before Thanksgiving. Question for each one of us might be are we grateful and thankful. This, of course, is the time that we are to turn our thoughts and hearts to all those things in our life that that make our life wonderful. And that brings us joy. And that gives us the ability to have a life. So it's a time to be grateful for all we have, even if it's meager, because in the process of being thankful, we are more than satisfied with what we have. A couple of days ago, I was at one of our local restaurants, Panda Express, I don't know how many of you have been there. I'm sure most of us have eaten there at one time or the other. But you always get this fortune cookie when you go. And for me, I always am hoping even though I really don't believe I'm going to get something from that there's a part of me saying, I hope I get a good fortune today. So when I cracked the cookie open, and saw what it said, at first, I was a little disappointed, because it said show gratitude. That didn't sound like a fortune to me. At first it has sounded like kind of a command or something that that I needed to do. Well, then I start to think about that. Is this a fortune? Is there a way that showing gratitude would lead to a fortune? And it got me really thinking? So I looked at Fortune and it basically says that fortune is is a position in life determined by our wealth, or wealth or riches, or great wealth, ample stock of money, property and the like. So does showing gratitude lead to Fortune. Listen to this quote by Melody Beatty, I think it's really interesting. She says that gratitude turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past brings peace for today. and creates a vision for tomorrow. Now, if that's not a fortune, I don't know what it is. So it's actually in our hands, we have the ability to possess that kind of Fortune just by simply identifying why we're grateful, showing gratitude, expressing gratitude. The other question I have, and I'm kicked myself, honestly, a lot of times, I'm like, why am I not feeling grateful until I lose the thing that I should have been grateful for all along. And it's only in the loss of that thing? Do I feel grateful that I had it at one time, and then when it comes back, like, for example, health, after being sick, all the sudden, I feel so grateful for it. And I get bugged at myself honestly, that, that I am that thoughtless about my blessings, that it doesn't really have an effect on me until I lose it. I had an interesting experience a few years ago, after we had founded the wilderness treatment program. It was in the middle of the winter, lots of snow on the ground. And it was the day after Christmas. And I knew we had a bunch of boys out there in the field that I was going to go do therapy with. So wilderness programs, in case you don't understand what they are, are really built to create a milieu or an environment where change can happen much more rapidly. Because it's simplified. They're unplugged from the world. They're maybe out of conflict with their parents, they're sort of in a unique environment, a very novel situation, where they can do a lot of deep reflection and thought about their life. Well, I was able to be a therapist in our wilderness program. And I was really wondering how the kids were going to be when I went out there in the field to do therapy. I went out the day after Christmas. And I knew that the Blizzard had been so bad the night before, that I just expected everybody to be angry and upset that they'd spent Christmas out under a tarp in the snow like that with the blizzard that was going on. I get out there. And the young man that I felt would be most upset when I got to see him. And we're sitting around a little fire huddled really close trying to stay warm around that fire. He had this big beaming smile. And I said, what is making you so happy? Honestly, I'm miserable out here because the cold is so bad, but you're smiling ear to ear what's going on. And he started telling me a story that really was quite interesting. This is a boy that had tried all kinds of ways to getting out of the program instead of actually doing the work. And here we were the day after Christmas with with this bad weather him with a big smile. And he said, you know, yesterday for Christmas. The field staff gave us pie, we got to eat pie. And also they brought me a beef stick. And I was able to you know, have that for the first time out here. And it was amazing. We just savored every moment we were eating this, this food. And then he said, you know, the thing that really struck me is that last year this time, I was so angry at my parents, the day after Christmas, even the day of Christmas, because they'd given me some really, really nice skis for my birthday downhill skis. But I was angry because it wasn't, they weren't the exact skis that I wanted. And so he, he felt bad about that, and especially comparing how he felt then to a year before where he didn't just not feel grateful, he was angry. So pretty interesting experience that I witnessed. From a young man, it made me think of myself, I'm often not grateful for what I have until I lose it. So here's the question, how can we be grateful? Before we lose it? I'm going to give you three questions that I think are consequential questions that if we answer them for ourselves, and then maybe ask our loved ones around the dinner table or one on one conversations, it can increase the gratitude that we feel. Here's the first one what event thing or person are you deeply grateful for and why. The second one is what would be what would it be like without a certain blessing? go into detail about how your life would be different how it would affect you if you didn't have that particular blessing or good thing in your Life. And the third one, what would be different in your life? If you suddenly doubled the amount of gratitude you have? United suggests sort of the call to action today, I would suggest that you answer those questions for yourself first, and then try it out on some of your family members, your children and see what their answers are and then become a really, really good listener. Well, thank you for listening today. I'm excited for tomorrow. I'm going to practice gratitude. I wish you a happy Thanksgiving you and your family that is filled with gratitude and joy during this holiday season.