Thanksgiving Greed

 So I wrote this on Sunday, but never posted it. Better late than never though :)

I hope you all have had a wonderful thanksgiving and past week, I know mines was sure busy! Last week I did 3 days of schoolwork 'marathon'. Meaning I did three weeks worth of schoolwork in three days, whew -that was tiring! Then we had two days filled of cleaning and prepping for thanksgiving, being that my family hosts it every year. And lastly, my brother and I got up at 3:30 in the morning on black Friday to go shopping, that was exciting! And so all in all, today I am enjoying a peaceful and relaxing day of reading my book, watching Tangled, and doing a bit of painting (and some blogging as well). Today is the first day in a long time that I don't have anything pressing to do, which is such a relief.

So I thought that I would do a post about black Friday. It's not really about my experience of black Friday, but more of what irks me about it. That might sound a bit hypocritical since I go shopping every year, but what I find more so hypocritical is how America has this huge holiday of being thankful for what you have and then turns around and expects you to go shopping on Thanksgiving day and think more about being greedy and getting more stuff than being thankful. Maybe I should back track a little...

Last year was when my family first started to notice how stores were beginning to advertise sales that started at 10pm on Thursday. "Black Friday deals a day early!", "Don't wait till Friday what you can do on Thursday!", or "The best deals yet on Thanksgiving day!". What seems so wrong about this is that on Thanksgiving day people should be spending time with there family, and the sad thing is that employers are forcing their employees to work on Thanksgiving day with no choice. We even have a friend who is a single parent/stay at home mom, and she had been looking to get a job since she earns no income and has just been living with her parents. The problem is though that she doesn't have a car since she doesn't have a job, and she can't get a job hardley since she doesn't have a car. Well, she finally got a job working at a retail store nearby her house that she can walk to. The sad part is though that she didn't get to spend thanksgiving with her family that day. She had to work from 2pm-11pm that day. And she didn't have much choice about it since she has her sons medical bills that she needs to pay for and other things. And so the point is, by shopping on Thanksgiving we are forcing families to spend that day apart just so that they can work that day. Until all of the people stand together in refusal to support greed on Thanksgiving day then it will continue to get worse until people skip the meal all together to go shopping.

The main point though is that people have let greed for worldly items consume them. Decade by decade, year by year, and day by day it has seemed to have gotten worse. Here is what the scripture says about it;

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs

~1 Timothy 6:10 

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 

 ~Hebrews 13:5

A greedy man stirs up strife, but the one who trusts in the Lord will be enriched. 

~Proverbs 28:25

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 

~1 John 2:16

As you can see, greed will just destroy us if we let it. It will rip us away from our devotion from God and turn us into someone we once were not. Sometimes the question I have to ask myself when wanting something is "Do I really need it?", often times I don't. That doesn't mean that desiring something is wrong, what is wrong is when we let it consume us and all we can think about is more of what we don't have. The perfect remedy for this is to count your blessings. That is kind of the point behind Thanksgiving, to look around you at your family and/or friends and just be grateful that you have them and the abundance of food before you. 

And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 

~Luke 12:15 

Have a blessed day,