Thankless Thanksgiving: How Gratitude Beats Your Fears in the Hard Times

Jerusha: I’m so thankful (see what I did there?) to introduce you to Christian writer, Janine Rosche! Janine and I just started to get to know each other better, and I’ve been delighted to find in her a special encourager and friend. She’s sharing some of that practical encouragement and truth with all of us today!

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!

After living all over the United States, Janine Rosche has settled in Northwestern Ohio with her husband and four children.

With a master’s degree in Family and Consumer Sciences, she is a certified family life educator and online lecturer at the University of Colorado-Denver. She has taught courses in human development, love and marriage, psychology, and family relations.

She infuses this experience into her contemporary romance novels by creating strong characters and relatable conflict, all within rustic settings.

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