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Lauren Chandler is one of the devotional content authors of the CSB Lifeway Women’s Bible. This Bible is designed for women of any age, the CSB Lifeway Women’s Bible will inspire you to grow, laugh, and worship alongside our thriving and vibrant community. Featuring contributions from Priscilla Shirer, Jackie Hill Perry, Trillia Newbell and more, this Bible makes a perfect gift – for yourself as much as anyone!

In the following reflection, Lauren shares about how the spiritual practice of thanksgiving can persist, even when Thanksgiving traditions don’t.

Thanksgiving Traditions | Lauren Chandler

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. I know Christmas usually gets all the love, but I can’t quit on the fourth Thursday of November. It doesn’t have the mounting pressure of fulfilling wish lists or guessing what my family members hope to open on Christmas morning. Thanksgiving is usually simple—food, family, friends, and fun (and since I’m a Texan, I’ll add one more “f”—football).

Not much has changed over the years in how we observe the national holiday. We have our traditions: turkey, ham, corn souffle, my mother’s cornbread dressing recipe passed down from her mother, homemade gravy, jellied cranberry sauce (don’t hate), and an amazing relish tray. Family and sometimes a friend who needs to feel like family gather around the table. Before a dish is served, each of us shares at least one thing for which we’re thankful. Gratitude circles around the table until it’s back to my husband. He gives me the cue, and I start in on the Doxology. Our voices fill the air with the seventeenth-century chorus:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow; 

Praise Him all creatures here below; 

Praise Him above ye heavenly host; 

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Some years, it’s easier to sing that than others. Tables, arms, and wombs full. All is well and right in the world. But then there are the years when we have to remind ourselves of what the Lord commands us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “give thanks in everything.”

Give thanks—when there’s an empty seat at the table.

Give thanks—when you come to dinner alone again this year.

Give thanks—when your workplace feels like a war zone.

Give thanks—when you’ve been misunderstood and misrepresented.

Give thanks—when you’ve lost the job.

Give thanks—when your husband succumbs to a massive seizure. 

Give thanks—when the doctor utters the words, “large mass.”

Let me be clear—there is a difference between in everything and for everything. A life lost, a dream deferred, a weary heart, a job loss, a seizure, and cancer are not in and of themselves worthy to receive our gratitude. They are facts of life lived on this side of eternity and under the curse of sin. Might they one day reveal blessings as unanswered prayers? Maybe. But we’re not told to be thankful for them but rather in them.

Our family learned the difference on Thanksgiving Day 2009, one of the most sobering days of my life. The day our family heard the words “large mass.” The day our seats were empty at the table because we were huddled in an emergency room. The day my strong, able-bodied husband shook and seized with such force I wasn’t sure he would ever stop.

Those moments and memories haunted me for weeks. I couldn’t find the strength to thank God for them, but I could thank God in them. I could thank Him for being the God who sustains. I could thank Him for the peace that passed understanding—a tangible yet unexplainable Presence that accompanied us to the emergency room, the neurosurgeon’s office, the OR, the waiting rooms, the oncology radiologist, and the neuro-oncologist. I could thank Him for Jesus.

If it weren’t for Jesus, there would be a chasm between us. My sin would stand in the way. If it weren’t for Jesus, I would be outside the steadfast love of God. If it weren’t for Jesus, I wouldn’t know the heart of a loving Father who disciplines those He loves. If it weren’t for Jesus, I wouldn’t know the help the Spirit gives in my weakest moments. If it weren’t for Jesus, I’d have no hope for a new heaven, a new earth, or a new body.

So, the day that comes around every year to remind me to give thanks doesn’t have to be the picture of perfection. In fact, it could very well be the stuff of nightmares. But giving thanks doesn’t have to wait until everything’s all right, nor does it come in response to the difficult. It rises up in the midst of it—in everything—as a song of praise to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

** “Thanksgiving Traditions” by Lauren Chandler has been edited for length and clarity, excerpted from the CSB Lifeway Women’s Bible (p. 1734).

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