Read our November writing challenge winners: 'In all things be thankful'

As we considered the devotionals submitted to our November Writing Challenge, we had to stop and BE THANKFUL for the wonderful submissions we received! We had more submissions to this challenge than any in the past, and it was incredibly difficult to narrow our winners down to three finalists.

So, we added a few more and are happy to celebrate the accomplishments of five SCWC writers.

Congratulations to the following authors for their devotionals on thanksgiving. We're so pleased with your pieces, and we're excited to share them with our readers.

1st place: Audrey Bivins

2nd place: Suzanne D. Nichols

3rd place: Darcy Hicks

Honorable mention: Johnny Ellison

Honorable mention: Debbie Phillips

Thank you for to everyone who contributed to this month's challenge, and be looking out on Monday, Nov. 27 on Cyber Monday for the opportunity to read all of the gratitude devotionals we received. (Tune into the SCWC Facebook group to get your chance to read all of the devotionals. We're so excited to share them with you!)

Enjoy this month's winners...and consider submitting your writing to our next challenge.

"The Discipline of Gratitude"

by Audrey Bivins

This month, I've been surrounded by the symbols and decorations of Thanksgiving. There are multiple colors of pumpkins on my porch, my neighbor has an inflatable turkey in her yard, and I have helped my elementary aged children with different turkey crafts. The evenings are darker earlier, and there are fall leaves covering the grass in my yard. It feels like autumn; it feels like Thanksgiving-time. Yet, this evening, as I sit making lists about Thanksgiving menus and send texts about who is bringing what, I am frustrated by the fact that I don't feel grateful.

In fact, I feel almost the opposite. Is it hypocritical to make pies for a holiday about gratitude when I’m not feeling grateful? I am frustrated by a difficult job that often seems thankless, sad that one of my children doesn’t seem to feel well, but with no obvious symptoms, and disappointed by my inability to find success in two areas of self-improvement I’ve been working on.

Soon, however, I’m reminded by the Holy Spirit’s gentle whispering that gratitude is not simply a feeling, but a discipline that guides the feeling. We call it the feeling of gratitude, and talk about feeling grateful, but if it was simply a feeling, we wouldn’t have much control over it. Scripture, science, and psychology are all in agreement: gratitude is a discipline that can be exercised and developed. This is why there are so many tools to cultivate gratitude, such as gratitude journals, counting blessings, and naming blessings before bed. The feeling of gratefulness can come and go, but the discipline of gratefulness can guide us back to feeling grateful. This explains why I was full of gratitude yesterday, but this evening, when making plans for a holiday I love, I’m not. And yet, as I ponder and pray about all the things I should be grateful for, the feeling of gratitude begins to seep back into my heart and mind.

Pumpkin and pecan pies, sweet potatoes, and turkey aren’t enough to make me feel thankful. Helping my children complete turkey crafts for school isn’t quite enough either. Fall leaves, pumpkins, and early sunsets make it feel like fall, but aren’t enough to make me feel grateful.

However, thanking God for His blessings, even when I don’t feel grateful, does something special, something supernatural. In thanking God for his rich and wonderful blessings, a healing balm is applied to my spirit, and those things that were bothering me earlier can be seen from the right perspective. I am more attuned to the wonderful ways God has blessed me, and more able to see His love and grace, even when life is not perfect.

God knows our weaknesses and in that knowledge he commanded us to give thanks always. First Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for in Christ Jesus." If gratitude was a feeling, this would be impossible for us; Heaven knows--God knows--that life here on Earth can feel hard or lacking sometimes.

Moreover, I have a tendency to let small problems obscure my view of all the ways God has blessed me. I also tend to give more space and more significance to feelings than I should. 

Feelings come and go, so God knew we would need the discipline of consistent thanksgiving so that we can experience the healing and life-giving blessing of acknowledging Him and all He does for us. When I begin to thank God for Who He Is, what He has done, and for how He has loved and blessed me, I find the freedom and blessing of feeling grateful. The feeling follows the discipline.

Dear Gracious Father, thank You for giving me instructions on how to find the feeling of gratefulness. Thank You for knowing me, inside and out, and knowing that I would need instructions on the discipline of gratitude. Please help me as I seek to become more disciplined in this area. Remind me of my weaknesses and need for discipline in this area. Thank You for Your presence in my life and for Your patience with my nearsightedness. Thank You for opening my eyes to the many blessings You have given me. I am grateful that through thanking You, You have allowed me to feel grateful again. Amen.

"More than a House"

by Suzanne D. Nichols

"The house of the righteous contains great treasure." (Proverbs 15:6)

"I know you don't want to," my husband began. I braced myself. I already knew what he was about to say. "But you really need to think seriously about selling this house. It's time."

This house--as he referred to it--was the home my grandparents built in 1948. My husband's cautious approach assured me he knew it was so much more than a house.

My grandparents--low income, common folk--considered it a special blessing. It was more than my mother's family home from the age of fourteen and until she moved away at 22 with her husband and two-year-old me. It was more than her residence once again, when in 1989 she returned to care for her widowed mother. It was more than a place for her to live for the next 29 years following her mother's passing.

When I left the nest in 1975, my grandparents' home provided a soft landing for my unsteady wings. Four years later, it was more than a roof over our heads for my husband our toddler son, and me in the gap between college graduation and a job in another city.

For scores of people--family, friends, university students, and many others--it was more than a holiday destination, more than a place to fellowship over coffee and pound cake or rent a room or study together in a safe environment. Anyone who spent time in this home was aware of the One who lived supreme there: the Lord Jesus.

But now, the house had been sitting unused for a year. We had moved my aging mother out of it and into a safer residence. The time had come to face my husband's admonition. Something must be done about the house.

After discussing the issue with other family members, emptying the house became my responsibility. So, in the summer of 2019, my husband and I hauled our travel trailer to town and spent 12 weeks clearing out 70 years of accumulation from the attic to the basement.

My husband graciously let me take the time I needed to sort through boxed up memories. My purposeful work assured me I was serving well as a steward of my grandparents' earthly goods. In the end, I found a sense of closure I had not expected.

On our final day in town, we made one more trip to the house to vacuum, secure doors and windows, cut the grass, and turn off the water supply. As I entered the now-empty house, emotion overwhelmed me. I immediately recognized my tearful reaction as gratitude, not sadness or loss, as one might naturally expect.

Rather, my heart was filled with thankfulness for all the blessings the house had afforded me over my lifetime. I reverently slipped through each doorway and welcomed the rush of memories. I lingered a few moments in each room, thanking God for every image. In the kitchen, I could almost smell the vegetable soup simmering while my grandmother taught me to see great potential in a few leftovers, as well as in the bits and pieces life might give me. I stepped into the dining room where we always held hands for prayer around a large round table. My grandfather's gnarled fingers--stiff and roughened by years of hard work--would cradle mine with the same gentleness exemplified by his humble and grateful approach to life.

Tears flowed freely as I stood in the small bedroom where, at the age of six, I knelt with my grandmother beside a squeaky iron bed and prayed to ask Jesus into my heart.

Memories followed me from room to room, rich treasures to gather to my heart and cherish for a lifetime.

We closed the door on the physical house my grandparents first walked through 70 years earlier, but their lifetime of open-door welcomes will remain with me as powerful images of gratitude wrapped in grace.

Gracious Father, thank you for the legacy of humble folk who gave with open hearts and open doors. May your love and grace flow through the blessings You place in my hands today. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

"Gratitude"

by Darcy Hicks

"Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 CSB)

Have you ever wondered what God's will is for your life? Or questioned whether something was really His will, particularly during difficult seasons? I know I have. But Paul reminds us that God's will is to rejoice always, pray constantly, and give thanks in everything.

Somehow it always seems easier to give thanks and rejoice when life is smooth sailing. But when rough waters threaten to overtake us, it is not so easy to give thanks for hard things. But this verse says to give thanks in everything. Meaning we must thank Him for the good, bad, and the ugly things in our life.

Paul endured many hardships beyond what most of us can imagine, and yet he is the one who tells us in Romans (8:28) that God is working out everything for our good, even the challenging things. Ann Voskamp wrote an entire book on her journey to gratitude in One Thousand Gifts. She puts it this way, “Gratitude isn’t only a celebration when good things happen. Gratitude is a declaration that God is good no matter what happens.”

Do we do that in our daily lives, or are we more prone to complaining? Does our rejoicing become sadness? Do our prayers turn into grumbling? Do our thankful hearts become bitter?

That would be the way of the world, but as children of the light, we are to shine bright even in the midst of turmoil. What if rejoice, pray, and give thanks became our mantra as we go about our days? What would our daily lives look like if we took this approach instead?

Coffee with a new friend – Rejoice. Pray. Give Thanks.

Piles on laundry to wash and fold -- Rejoice. Pray. Give Thanks.

Hard conversation with a loved one. -- Rejoice. Pray. Give Thanks.

Job loss. -- Rejoice. Pray. Give Thanks.

Again and again. Rejoice. Pray. Give Thanks.

Rinse and repeat until it’s in the marrow of our bones and a part of who we are.

As followers of Christ, giving thanks is not meant to be just a November or Thanksgiving thing; it is meant to be an everyday thing - turning our eyes to the awe and wonder of God, who can be trusted with every moment of our days.

What are you most thankful for today? And what can you do to cultivate a grateful heart regardless of the trials in life? We want to nurture lives that are full of joy, prayer, and gratitude resting in the fact that it is God’s will for our lives.

Father, thank you for your faithful love and the truth of your Word. Help us to silence the noise of the world this holiday season and turn our hearts toward you. Open our eyes to see the good around us, do good to others, and share the good news of Jesus. May we rejoice, pray, and give thanks in all that we do for your glory. In Jesus name, Amen.

"A Thanksgiving Parable"

by Johnny Ellison

Once upon a time there was an exceedingly wise and loving father who lived in a village with his beloved children. Though the father was wealthier than any other person in town, he and his children lived simple lives together. Life was so simple for these children because their greatest delight was simply spending time with their father.

Day after day the children talked with their father, learned from their father (they didn't go to a school, because they were taught by their father who was the smartest man in the village), played with their father ate with their father, and enjoyed the company of one another.

As the children grew older and more mature, the father wanted to give them wonderful gifts from his own vast riches. One by one the father gave his children gifts with which they could play, work, travel, and learn. They were each pleased and thankful for their wonderful gifts. Each day these children would wake up and tell their father how thankful they were for their gifts.

After several years of receiving, enjoying, and being so thankful for all the gifts, these children began spending more time with the gifts than they did with their loving father. In fact, the father was saddened that his children spent more time enjoying their new gifts than they did enjoying him. It seemed to him that the gifts he gave the children out of his love were now diminishing his relationship with them.

Over time the children grew distant to their father. Their gifts consumed them more and more. To make things worse the children, who had always been so close and giving to one another, began fighting over their gifts. When the father approached the children with the desire to spend more time with them, they had appointments to show their gifts around, work to do on their gifts, or play with their gifts.

After some years the children's gifts began to break, tear up, get lost, or become uninteresting. As ths happened the children responded differently. Some became angry at their father for them giving them gifts that would break, and they would not speak to him anymore. Others had completely forgotten who gave them the gifts in the first place, so they wandered around aimlessly looking for more gifts.

Another group of the children, who had not spoken to their father much in recent times, called him and asked him to send them more gifts. All these children in these groups were sad and never regained the joy they once had with their father.

However, there was one group of children who realized what they had done, and ran back to their father to have a close relationship with him again. This group of children asked their father to forgive them. You see, they learned an important lesson: When a loving Father's good gifts to his children become the reason they do not seek him, then those gifts can no longer truly be enjoyed.

No one can serve two masters. Ether he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6: 24, 33)

"Eucharisteo"

by Debbie Phillips

"And when He had taken bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them. (Luke 22:19)

Give thanks. It sounds so simple. So easy. Yet, it is profound and transformative.

A Google search will yield a myriad of step-by-step instructions in giving thanks if one is seeking to be perfunctory in thanksgiving.

But I find thanksgiving is about connecting the eternal, the divine with the ordinary, and the common. My reference point for this conclusion? Me. It takes time and practice. Thankfully, God is not in a hurry, and is most patient. He has a way of taking what we bring to him as a form of thanksgiving and transforming it into something beautifully life changing and enhancing.

When Jesus was sharing a Passover meal with his disciples, he took the bread in his hands, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his disciples, he was practicing Eucharisteo (Thanksgiving). In the middle of this long multi-syllable word is the word, Charis. Charis, in the Greek, means grace. There is grace to be received in offering blessing to the gift-Giver. In that giving and receiving giving thanks, a connection of the ordinary to the divine occurs. Thanksgiving is a joyous sacred act.

Eucharisteo, the giving of thanks to God for His provision of the gift which is in our hands, brings greater depth of fellowship with Father God and our fellow friends and family and so much more. It increases the opportunity for the miraculous to happen in big and small ways. 

Taking the time to give thanks causes us to slow down and reflect on God’s providence, grace, mercy and love. May I offer a suggestion? Keeping a gratitude journal throughout out the year is an excellent way to maintain our focus on thanksgiving once November is a distant memory. 

Father, give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts and minds to know and understand when and where the opportunity to practice thanksgiving presents itself. Show us where you are in every situation and circumstance so that we may give thanks to you first. May we seize every opportunity. We are so thankful for the greatest gift of your Son, Jesus Christ. In Jesus name, Amen.

~~~~~~~~~~

Congratulations again to our winners. Your devotionals blessed us in a special way, and reminded us of how important gratitude must be during the holiday season and always. And thank you to everyone who contributed their devotions to our challenge!

Do you want to enter next month's challenge? Be looking for its announcement in our SCWC Facebook group.

Continue to write...and let's celebrate each other as we stay true to our calling.