Thanksgiving is a wonderful tightwad holiday. Nothing on the must-have food list is very expensive, and people usually cook from scratch for it; there are no gifts to buy, and few, if any, decorations. The best thing, though, is that an attitude of thankfulness in and of itself saves money. If you're thankful for what you have, you won't feel so much need to upgrade to a bigger house, bigger TV, or fancier phone. If you know just how blessed you are to have decent clothes to wear when so many people around the world do not, you'll find thrift store threads sufficient. When you know how blessed you are to have sufficient food to eat, you won't let your kids throw away their bread crusts.
I find it shameful this is followed by the Black Friday buying binge, as if we, as a society, have not taken the lesson to heart. Being thankful will save you money, but also compel you to respond by giving. This reminds me of Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 86:
Q. 86 We have been delivered from our misery by God's grace alone through Christ
and not because we have earned it: why then must we still do good?
A. To be sure, Christ has redeemed us by his blood. But we do good because Christ by his Spirit is also renewing us to be like himself, so that in all our living we may show that we are thankful to God for all he has done for us, and so that he may be praised through us. And we do good so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Wow, kind of makes me wish Christmas was this way too (and shouldn't it really be?)
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