Thanksgiving Message

Enjoy this personal reflection on Thanksgiving. We all have a lot to be grateful for regardless of our current circumstances. Join me as I reflect on the people and things I'm thankful for and the person I am grateful to. Be blessed!

Transcript

Hello friend,

This is Joseph.

I'm sitting here behind my piano,

Reflecting on Thanksgiving.

And,

You know,

For those of us here in America,

Thanksgiving is almost here,

Actually,

Next week.

And I'm sure there are a lot of things that you could,

You know,

Think about and be grateful and thankful for.

You know,

I guess sometimes we tend to focus so much on the negatives,

The bad things,

And,

You know,

Nobody knows the kind of trouble I've been through,

Kind of mentality.

But I wanted to share with you some of the things I was sort of thinking about as I'm,

You know,

Sitting here.

So,

If you're like anybody else,

You know,

You start the new year,

You've got New Year resolutions and things you want to do for the next year,

Things you want to make right,

And all of that.

And you start the year and you go through it.

As you know,

Things don't always happen the way you want them to be,

You know.

Life gets underway.

Life,

It's not some kind of a static thing.

It's just sitting at one place.

It moves,

You know.

And so,

You realize that sometimes,

You know,

Half of the year is gone and you haven't been able to achieve whatever you set out to achieve.

You know,

Tragedies happen.

A major change happens.

You know,

Maybe you lose a loved one.

Maybe you lose a job.

Or maybe you get promoted or you switch jobs,

You move,

And all kinds of things,

You know,

That happen during the year.

But if you take time,

You know,

And think about those events and all the changes that have happened,

You know,

Not all of them are necessarily bad,

You know.

Some of them are actually good.

I mean,

I'm sure if you get a job promotion,

You're not going to call that bad.

You're going to appreciate that because that means,

You know,

You're one step ahead as far as achieving your career goes.

That means more money and all kinds of things,

You know.

And so,

As the year sort of comes to an end,

You know,

And at Thanksgiving is upon us here,

Think about some of those things.

What are you grateful for?

It could,

And sometimes it doesn't necessarily have to be huge things,

You know.

Like you could be saying,

Well,

Joseph,

I never had a job promotion.

Maybe I lost my job or maybe I lost my mom or my marriage is broken or my wife is broken.

Whatever it is,

I'm sure there's something that you could be thankful for.

You know,

You're still alive and breathing.

You know,

Every morning you wake up and you've got breath in your lungs and you're able to walk,

You're able to talk,

You're able to see,

You're able to speak,

You're able to drive.

You know,

Don't take that for granted.

That's a gift.

Life itself is a gift.

You know,

Every morning you get up,

You're able to function efficiently as you always do.

That's reason to be thankful.

You know,

Every morning I wake up and I'm grateful and I'm thankful for life,

My kids,

My family,

My wife and all the important people in my life.

And even people who don't like me so much,

You know.

I'm grateful for everyone.

I'm grateful for my community and thankful for,

You know,

My job,

You know,

All the things,

The beautiful things that are around me.

You know,

Just to be able to go to the park and sit there and relax,

You know,

Have the kids run around,

You know,

Maybe,

You know,

Summertime,

Maybe you went to the beach or whatever,

Or maybe you're like me who likes books a lot,

You know.

So your thing is maybe you go to the library and read.

Just the opportunity to have a quiet place to sit and read,

To go borrow a book and come and read.

All kinds of things that you could be thankful for,

You know.

It's not always the big,

Big,

Big things,

You know,

But it's just,

You know,

Maybe some conversation you had at the coffee shop with,

You know,

A stranger and you realize that,

Wow,

You know,

We're all not that different,

You know.

We're all going through similar things,

Just different situations and things like that,

You know.

So I want you to think about,

You know,

The whole year and everything you've been through,

The blessings that have come your way,

The opportunities and even sometimes the missed opportunities,

You know.

Sometimes we tend to look at things like,

Oh man,

You know,

Maybe even failures,

You know,

You failed at a certain thing and wow,

It was disappointing,

You know.

Maybe you've given it time,

You've processed it and now you realize,

Wow,

I'm glad I failed because I wasn't ready for this next step.

You know,

Although when it happens,

We don't look at it like that.

We think,

Oh yeah,

Well,

You know,

I failed and now I'm disappointed,

But there's a lesson to be learned there,

You know.

And if you're willing and patient to sit and analyze and go through things,

You realize,

Wow,

Maybe this was a blessing in disguise.

So think about it as Thanksgiving has come in,

You know,

A lot of things that you should be thankful for.

I'm thankful for a lot of things.

I'm thankful for you that you're listening to me right now,

You know.

I mean,

Who am I to be,

You know,

Talking to you and sharing my reflections with you,

But it's a blessing to be able to have this platform to encourage and inspire others,

You know.

So you're part of my blessing this year.

You are.

And I'm grateful and I'm thankful for all your continued support,

You know,

Although we've never met before,

But,

You know,

We're here on this platform and you're listening to me and I'm drawing inspiration from you and you're listening.

So a lot to be thankful for.

Another thing that I want to sort of zero in on is sometimes we talk a lot about,

You know,

People and things we're thankful for,

Which is all great.

Okay.

But what we seldomly talk about is who are you grateful or thankful to?

Who are you grateful to?

You know,

Let me give you an example.

I'm assuming that you don't think that your mail somehow crawls from the post office and magically appears in your mailbox.

Right?

That would be absurd,

Right?

There's somebody behind that.

And sometimes not one person.

Sometimes there's a whole chain of people making sure that you get your mail,

You know.

And so,

Yes,

We are thankful for all the blessings in our lives and we enjoy them and all of that.

But there's a person behind all of these blessings,

You know.

There's a person behind all of these blessings.

And sometimes I think we leave out that person.

You live in a universe that has been designed and put together in a way and it's fine-tuned in such a way that you're able to live life.

You know,

Why is it that it's got the right amount of oxygen,

The right amount of carbon,

The right amount of nitrogen,

The right amount of hydrogen?

It's put together for you and I.

You know,

And we continue to enjoy it.

You know,

We all learned about photosynthesis and how it produces,

You know,

It takes carbon and hydrogen and oxygen and,

You know,

It releases oxygen to the atmosphere and it takes the carbon dioxide and uses it.

And then we get glucose,

Carbohydrates and all of that.

There's somebody behind all of that.

So during this time of thanksgiving,

I want you to think about that,

You know.

I want you to think about,

You know,

The God behind all of this.

Maybe you don't know Him or maybe you haven't taken time to appreciate,

Acknowledge every blessing that He's given you.

So this is the time,

Whilst you enjoy your turkey or whatever you like to eat during thanksgiving,

You know,

Take time to give God some thanks too.

You know,

How would you feel if a neighbor always came to your door and knocked on your door and said,

Oh,

Can I borrow sugar or whatever?

And you give it out and then they just ran off.

They never say thank you.

They just go do whatever they want to do.

Let them continually do that for a month and tell me how you feel.

You know,

You'd probably say,

Hey,

A little more appreciation here would help.

You know,

But a lot of us,

We go about our daily business without ever acknowledging the God behind all the blessings that we enjoy.

We just,

You know,

Take it for granted.

Yeah,

It's,

You know,

I work hard for it.

So,

You know,

I don't owe anybody gratitude or anything like that.

Well,

Think again.

You don't make the oxygen that you breathe.

What if every month you got a bill for the oxygen you consume?

Would you be able to afford that?

Somebody has already made it available free of charge.

Don't you think that such a person deserves your gratitude?

So anyways,

We've got a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

You know,

The people in our lives,

In our communities,

All the facilities that we enjoy,

Our coworkers,

Our bosses,

Our jobs,

And ultimately the one behind all this blessing.

God who provides all of this for us.

Let's not forget him during this Thanksgiving.

Yes,

Let's enjoy the turkey and all of that.

Let's also acknowledge and thank him for all his blessings.

Let's do that.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

And thanks for,

You know,

Listening to me.

I hope this was a blessing to you,

Art.

Have a great rest of your day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Reviews

Joseph, I am so grateful that I found your talk here on Thanksgiving Day. I enjoyed your piano playing. I am grateful for my many blessings. I look forward to listening to you again. Thank you. 🦃🧡🎶

Thank you, Joseph, for sharing your thoughts on Thanksgiving with us. Between the music and the message, I find myself inspired, uplifted and humbled all at once. May we all be blessed on this Thanksgiving Day and every day forward. 🙏🤍

Happy Thanksgiving, Joseph! Thankful for you, your message and the many lives you get to touch here on IT. Many blessings to you & your family on this beautiful holiday!

Thanksgiving is almost here & this is a great reminder that life is a gift, God is good, & there is so much to be thankful for. Thank you, Joseph, & happy and blessed Thanksgiving to you & your family. .

Thank you Joseph. Happy Thanksgiving to you and family🙏💖

Beautiful message, Joseph. Thank you, and Happy Thansgiving 🙏🏽✨️🩷💖🌸⛰️⛰️🌳🌲🌠🌓✨️💖🌄🐚🌺🐿🌰🏵⚘️

Great message. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Blessings always. Thank you for sharing your beautiful talent with all of us. 💥❤️🙏🌎

💜🙏💜😊🕊

♥️♥️♥️

It is so important for all of us to think about everyone time and effort that makes our life work and makes it better. This mediation is a blessing.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family Joseph. Such a beautiful message. 🙏🏼♥️

Beautiful, a lot of things to be grateful for… 🙏🙏🙏♥️

Thank you! 🙏🏻 Very true and heartfelt ❤️

Wonderful message thanks for sharing Your music and wisdom

Even without celebration of Thanksgiving (because in our culture it does not exist) it is a very beautiful talk! Thank you for sharing.

Thank you very much Sir Joseph 🙏🏻🙏🏻

This was so beautiful and perfect for Thanksgiving. Love and gratitude 🙏

Wow, Joseph! What a wonderful Thanksgiving message. You’re definitely a huge blessing to me and I’m grateful for you! 💐🤍🎹

A beautiful reflection on gratitude! Your words and piano accompaniment are so encouraging and inspiring. Grateful to you Joseph for sharing your gifts that bless us all!

Happy Thanksgiving, Joseph!