I have always loved Thanksgiving, but I’ve been really, really looking forward to it this year. Why? Because last year, Thanksgiving 2007, I started a new Horlbeck family tradition. Here’s what it is:

The Thankful Box.

I have two small boxes sitting on my kitchen table. One with a pen and a stack of index cards (cut in half) inside. The other box is empty. Any time we were thankful for something or someone we wrote it down and popped it into the other box. We also extended this to our friends and family. When they come to visit we remind them to fill out a card with something they’re thankful for and add it to our thankful box.

You should see how full the (once empty) box is getting! We are SOOO excited to open up our Thankful Box around the table this year. We’re going to pass the cards out and take turns reading all the things we and our friends have been blessed with. I took a sneak peek at a few of them yesterday and it’s amazing how many things I forgot happened! I guess that means I really am losing my mind, haha.

But really, this will be a record of God’s faithfulness to us. We’ve found even on a bad day there’s always something to be thankful for. Sometimes, our worst day has been when it’s most important to write down what we’re thankful for. It really helps us keep an eternal perspective, especially after this crazy, stressful, worrisome year.

I think I’m going to start a scrapbook where I’ll keep all of our thankful cards grouped according to year, like one big altar where we look back and see how God has provided for us. We have experienced God’s goodness in amazing ways this year. We are thrilled to open our box and reflect on His faithfulness, kindness, and mercy towards us, and remember how He is bringing us through this storm with His strength and power. Glory to Jesus on Thanksgiving Day!

Lamentations 3:22-25 (NLT)

22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
23 Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
therefore, I will hope in him!”
25 The Lord is good to those who depend on him,
to those who search for him.

Faith never knows where it is being led,
But it knows and loves the One who is leading.