Good morning, Five Minute Families! Thank you for joining us here today. At Clear View Retreat, we always try to bring our focus back to the Lord and keep a clear view of His perspective and not our own. So, let’s talk about the fact that this is Thanksgiving week.

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is in just a couple of days. Wow, it has been a very long year. These last nine months have been worse than any pregnancy. At least at the end of a pregnancy, there is hope, joy, renewal, and the sweetness of new life. Many of us through these nine months have barely been able to hang on. We keep hearing the thread throughout articles, posts, memes, and more…. Let’s get 2020 over with so that we can get past all of the awfulness it brought to our lives.

That makes me think… On Sunday, our church celebrated its first ever Thanksgiving Easter Egg hunt. There were fewer people and many of us were masked. But, the kids had fun gathering candy while the pastor took their joy as an opportunity to share the gospel message again and in a way that they could better understand than during the Sunday morning “big service.” Yes, Easter and Thanksgiving are certainly different this year, to say the least.

Early on in the pandemic, we tried to focus on some of the positives… we discussed intentionality in March and followed that with ways that folks were being joyful in the COVID chaos. Well, it goes without saying, but I will say it anyway… 2020 has dragged on and on and has been an incredibly difficult year. Yet, thanksgiving is still upon us.

Are you actually thankful? Do you have ‘an attitude of gratitude’ or do you stick with platitudes?

You know, five things we are not thankful for this year are:

1. Masks
2. Less traveling
3. Smaller gatherings or no gatherings
4. The death of a loved one
5. Constantly changing information

What do we do with the disappointments that threaten to creep in? Ah, Five Minute Families, when we are told in James 1:2 to count it all joy when we encounter trials that does include in the midst of a pandemic.

But, how do we do that????

With disappointments we must:

First, identify unmet expectations. Were your 2020 expectations realistic or fair to others?

Second, we must pause to recognize the feelings that are bubbling up. Often, they end up looking like anger, but are you feeling hurt, sadness, anticipation, fear, loneliness, jealousy, or disgust? Better recognition helps to better deal with the feelings and resulting thoughts.

Third, take your disappointed thoughts captive. Train your mind to stop running down the bunny trail.

Fourth, invest time in God’s word to replace your faulty thoughts and perspective. When we are trying to establish a positive habit of counting all things joy, we must replace the bad thoughts with TRUTH, not simply some set of positive thinking that may fail us again.

And, fifth, when the disappointments are creeping in, we must pray. Prayer is so very under-utilized by a believer and a Five Minute Family. 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 tells us to ‘Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’

So, let’s end with five things we need to be thankful for in the midst of 2020’s pandemic:

1. We have so much more information now than we did even six months ago. Optimistically, that will mean targeted, temporary closures instead of mass lockdowns. That also means that we can use masks in ways that are helpful and not harmful.
2. While mental health needs and inquiries have increased, the suicide rate has remained steady, which prayerfully means that folks are seeking and receiving support in the midst of the isolation.
3. Telehealth and telecounseling has expanded, helping many folks who would have otherwise avoided seeking assistance.
4. People are realizing the expanse of six feet apart. We need touch; we need hugs; we need each other. Folks are getting creative to hug and still stay safe.
5. God is still God, and He has done some amazing things through the pandemic. Premature births declined, many families got to spend some much-needed time together, and others identified destructive patterns that absolutely need to be changed.

Five Minute Families, struggles come and struggles go. We will struggle. We will hurt. People have gone out of their way to show love in creative and new ways when they are simply not able to be together. Those measures matter, and, prayerfully, we will all get through this stronger, more resilient, and more unified than ever before. God bless!