Finding Thanksgiving: How to Be Thankful and Fearless in Hard Times

Jerusha: I’m so pleased to welcome my friend and fellow author Janine Rosche back to the FW Blog! Janine is also giving away a copy of the Christmas novella collection, Love’s Pure Light, which she co-wrote with Deborah Raney, Susanne Dietze, and Shannon McNear. So, read on, and enter the giveaway following the post! 

By Janine Rosche

Thanksgiving has always been my least favorite holiday. Perhaps it’s the canned cranberry sauce. Or maybe it’s how this day consistently reminds me of all that I hope for and fear I will never have.

My worst Thanksgiving was in 2003. I sat across the table (and a thousand miles away) from my husband. And the conversation over the stuffing and mashed potatoes covered everything except the child who’d died in my womb eight weeks earlier. It wasn’t until the dishes had been washed and stacked that a loved one finally broached the elephant in the room.

“I once knew someone who had six miscarriages before they had a healthy baby.”

Finally, something was able to cut through my mourning.

Fear.

And it slithered quickly and skillfully around my heart.

I lay in bed that night wondering how I could feel thankful when everything I loved and longed for had been stripped away. I know I’m not alone.

In November, just like every other month of the year, church alter calls, social media posts, and prayer journals are filled with the words of hurting people. Diagnoses, divorces, and addictions do not slow down in the holiday season. And so, fear of what’s to come and fear of what may never be threaten to wrench all feelings of gratitude from our lives.

How can we keep this from happening? We could start a gratitude journal. Or we could post what we are thankful for on Instagram for thirty days. Both are valuable tasks. But my suggestion? Find solace in the biblical stories of others who have gone before and faced the same battle between thankfulness and fearfulness.

While there are many examples of men and women who have overcome impossible odds and kept a spirit of gratitude throughout, there’s one story that helped me through that dark time in 2003.

In 2 Chronicles 20:1-30, King Jehoshaphat stood before the people of God and gave a stirring speech proclaiming the power and might of the Lord, as not one, but three armies surrounded his men and their wives and children.

The king admits his fear and their inability to fight off their foes. He ends his speech with a humble, yet powerful line: “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”

The Lord answers King Jehoshaphat’s speech with one of his own. Through a man named Jahaziel, he basically tells them to do the following:

1. Do not be afraid or dismayed.
2. Trust that the Lord will fight this battle for you.
3. Go out and face the enemy.
4. Trust that the Lord will fight this battle for you.
5. Do not be afraid or dismayed.
6. Go out and face the enemy.
7. Trust that the Lord will fight this battle for you.

Perhaps ol’ Jahaziel got his degree from the Department of Redundancy department. But it’s my understanding that when the Lord speaks in repetition, it means He’s adamant that we hear Him. Through this story, I believe that God gives us the instructions for how we can survive our own trials.

What does this have to do with Thanksgiving? In the story, King Jehoshaphat leads his people in worship that night. When they awakened the next morning, he assigned some unlikely folks to lead the army into battle: men in holy garb singing, “Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever” (v. 21b).

This word is timeless. When we are afraid, God’s steadfast love endures forever. The same is true when we doubt. When we ache. When we wail. When we tear our clothes in mourning. And even when we don’t feel thankful, His love endures forever.

As they worshipped, the Lord turned the three surrounding armies on each other, leaving no survivors. “So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around” (v. 30).

Not all of our struggles will have the loose ends tied so neatly. But we can still remember what God taught us and promised us through this story.

When you fear, when you struggle, when you feel anything but thankful, do the following: Do not be afraid. Trust that the Lord will fight this battle for you. Go out and face the enemy. Repeat.

If we can do these things, perhaps we will be the ones leading others, singing, “Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

Is thankfulness hard for you right now? Are you struggling with fear about something that’s spoiling your holiday? Please share!

Photos by Ryan Christodoulou, Cayla1J, and Joanna Kosinska. Original graphics designed by Jerusha Agen.

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Prone to wander, Janine Rosche finds as much comfort on the open road as she does at home.

This longing to chase adventure, behold splendor, and experience redemption is woven into each of her rustic romance novels in the Madison River Romance series.

When she isn’t writing or traveling, she teaches family life education courses to college students, takes too many pictures of her sleeping dogs, and embarrasses her four children and husband with boy band serenades.

Connect with Janine at her website and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Janine’s giving away one copy of Love’s Pure Light to one of you! Enter via the Rafflecopter below! (Giveaway ends November 23, 2020. Print copy to U.S. mailing address only. If the winner is international, they will receive an e-copy.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Love’s Pure Light

Be transported to unique time periods as you follow a treasured family nativity set through four generations of the Shepherd family.

While Shepherds Watch Are Keeping by Susanne Dietze
Massachusetts, 1899
This Christmas, Pastor Seth Shepherd has little to offer his flock of congregants in their time of need until Jessalyn Grant, a mysterious newcomer, comes to his aid.

The Wise Guy and the Star by Shannon McNear
Charleston, South Carolina, to Kansas City, Missouri, 1919
While journeying by train, Stella Shepherd befriends war veteran Nat Wise. She helps him find renewed faith in God, but could he also be the answer to the wanderings of her own heart?

On Angel Wings by Janine Rosche
Kansas City, Missouri, 1945
Elodie Wise plans a fundraising ball with the help of her friend Benjamin Gabriel. But can she look past the swanky Hollywood headliner to see the man who truly loves her?

Making Room at the Inn by Deborah Raney
Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Present Day
Benjie Gabriel thinks the chef’s position she’s just taken at an award-winning bed and breakfast is temporary—just a stepping stone. The B&B’s owner, Trevor Keye, thinks the same. Will five months be long enough for them to figure out that what they’ve each been longing for, praying for, is right beneath their noses?