The first thing that comes to many minds when asked this question is “something comfortable and expandable.” That’s the practical answer.

I have another suggestion: put on the garment of praise! (See Isaiah 61:3)

As I was mulling over ideas for my Thanksgiving blog, I picked up my favorite devotional book and began reading A. W. Tozer’s words under the title “A Thankful Heart Cannot Also Be Cynical.”

He expressed some of the same sentiments I had been pondering as I considered what message would encourage caregivers this week.  

You may not be looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving as you have in previous years. You just may feel too tired to make preparations. The family celebration may be held somewhere your care recipient may not be able to go – which probably means you will stay home also. Or, you may still be hosting the family feast – in addition to performing all your caregiving duties.  Someone reading this may be sitting at the bedside of their loved one at a Hospice facility – knowing this will be their last Thanksgiving together. Maybe you are one of the truly blessed – an accessible location for you and the one you care for; a meal prepared by others (okay, they asked you to bring the stuffing because no one does it better); even a chauffeured limousine (or Uncle Jim picking you up in his brand new fancy car). 

Or maybe not.

Whatever the situation you find yourself in this Thursday, decide to give thanks with a grateful heart. What a difference that will make! Even in the most trying of circumstances, if we look deep into our hearts we can find something – maybe even many things – for which to be thankful…expressing gratitude will have a positive effect on our attitude.

A few weeks ago my daughter Rachel helped me with a long-overdue chore – decluttering the attic. Because she has a large family (nine children) and a not-so-large house and lives just next door, several years ago I told her she was welcome to store some things in my roomy walk-in attic (one of my favorite features of this old house). She did and somehow the storage boxes began to get out of control. We started early one morning and had completed our task by early afternoon – an accomplishment neither of us had anticipated. (However, I had prayed that God would bless us with supernatural strength before we began.) At one point while Rachel had gone home for a few minutes, I opened the drawer of an old file cabinet and pulled out some composition books, deciding I might as well leaf through them until Rachel returned. A few pages into the first one, I was shocked. Handwritten thoughts danced on the pages before me detailing experiences from the not-so-distant past; yet, until I read the words I had forgotten all about them; the entries jogged my memory. It had not been my plan to make a detailed survey of all items stored in the attic – just to rearrange and make it orderly (so I could go through each storage container later) but my curiosity was piqued and I looked through a few more of the “journals.” One included an assignment for a class for minsters’ wives I had taken many years ago when Randy first became a minister. It was simple enough – write down all the things for which you were thankful. God, Jesus and salvation headed the list, then my minister husband, the children, my parents, other family…and the list grew and grew. There were little things I still hold dear, like my first copy of A Child’s Garden of Verses; big things such as our cozy home and a new car; and things I had forgotten were ever mine.  Just reading the list made my heart overflow with Thanksgiving.

If back then I had so much to be thankful for, even more so now. Right off the bat I could add twenty-five. Listing the grandchildren, name by name, would quickly fill a page. 

So, whatever this Thanksgiving Day holds for you – and I do pray you have a blessed one – I want to encourage you to take out a pen and paper – or go to your computer or grab your iPad (or whatever you use to record your thoughts) and begin to list all your blessings. As you write one, another will come to mind and so on and so on and quite soon you will realize how truly blessed you are.

In the daily devotional, Tozer also suggested making a list of things for which you are thankful and he shared some of his own blessings. I found it interesting that he included his parents – even though they were deceased. Many days I start my prayers with thanksgiving that I had loving parents who gave me a Christian heritage. And in addition to the grandkids, my current list would also include the opportunity God gave me to take care of Daddy and the many blessings that resulted from that experience.

Thank God today that you have the honor of being a caregiver. Tozer notes, “The heart that is constantly overflowing with gratitude will be safe from those attacks of resentfulness and gloom that bother so many…”

So, what should you wear Thanksgiving? Put on the garment of praise! 

May you, the loved one you care for, and all your family experience a blessed Thanksgiving this Thursday.