Sometimes gratitude is hard, and yet recent events provide many reasons to be grateful.

Thanksgiving is the best! And I don’t even like Turkey (Prime rib or tacos, anyone?). Unlike Christmas or lesser holidays like Valentine’s Day or Halloween, Thanksgiving has largely resisted commercialization to the point where “Black Friday” requires its own name. Why? To state the obvious: it’s an entire holiday about being grateful for what we already have. What a gift to us! 

Gratitude has received a lot of good press in recent years. It is now common knowledge that gratitude helps combat depression and anxiety. It improves life satisfaction and restful sleep. And just in time for Thanksgiving, a new study out of Seattle Pacific University found that pre-service teachers who completed regular gratitude journaling experienced benefits in relationships, well-being, and professional growth. Also, did you know that faith-based gratitude is more powerful and effective than secular gratitude? It’s largely because it’s focused on God rather than circumstances. So when you read about the benefits of being grateful, remember that in Christ, you have super-gratitude! 

Psychologists now know more about the power of being thankful than ever before…of course, they are simply catching up on what God revealed to us already through David and Paul.

So if we know so much about gratitude, why is our culture so entitled? I’m sure you can answer that question as well as I can. But I believe one less obvious answer to that question is that we often miss the power of gratitude because we fail to contend for it.

The need to contend for gratitude is clear in Paul’s admonition in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Notice that Paul doesn’t say to give thanks for all circumstances, but in all circumstances. Nonetheless, even doing that is challenging. 

Some of you know that my wife and I, after raising our now-adult daughters, have adopted a sibling set. Our daughter (4) and son (3) have, in many ways, been a delight. However, recently, something has shifted, as if a developmental clock struck twelve. Our son, who just turned 3, is now on a constant mission to take or destroy anything his sister has, and in response, his sister has perfected an ear-splitting shriek that would lead me to call the authorities if I lived next door. Of course, retaliations ensue, and playtime has often become epic preschooler battles for the other one’s toys…kind of reminds me of the unit on late 19th/early 20th century imperialism I used to teach. Human nature on display, right? And why does it seem like my 30s parenting had more patience (and energy) than my 50s parenting?

As educators, I know you can relate. Many of our Christian Educators members call us every week with challenging situations. Just in the past few weeks, we’ve had a teacher on leave due to being injured by a student, a teacher facing backlash because she wouldn’t lie to parents about a student’s gender confusion, a teacher fearful of several violent and mentally ill students in his program, and several others facing false accusations, etc. Can we be thankful even in these circumstances?

That’s where contending comes in. Gratitude is a discipline–we do it even when we don’t feel like it, and the fruit comes in time.

Lord, I am thankful that you have chosen us to walk out your redemption story in the lives of our two adopted kids. I thank you for the strength of will they are developing that I believe will contribute to godly determination as they mature. Lord, I am so grateful that they sleep all night long!

How can you contend for gratitude in your life? In your school? I’d love to hear your gratitude story in the comments!

Of course, there are certainly times when it is easy to be grateful. And I’m excited to share with you some fodder for gratitude from across the country that educators can appreciate…

A court hearing for the ages

For the last two years, we’ve been faithfully watching the Mirabelli v. Olson case out of Escondido, California. The lawsuit was brought by two courageous educators who refused to comply with a district policy requiring them to hide students’ gender transitions–a policy rooted in official policy guidance from the California Department of Education. 

Well, you won’t believe what happened last Monday in a hearing before a federal district judge…it was glorious! Likely in response to scrutiny through this case and others, California has been backing away from mandating policies that hide students’ gender transition from parents. In fact, state attorneys tried to argue recently that the case was moot because they had recently removed such guidance from their website.

But had they? Enter PRISM, stage left.

This school year, California mandated that every public-school educator complete a new LGBTQ+ training called PRISM. When attorneys for the Mirabelli plaintiffs finally gained access to the password-protected course, they found that the same “don’t tell parents” directives hadn’t been deleted at all. They’d simply been hidden behind a digital curtain. Once the Thomas More Society attorneys exposed the sleight-of-hand, and with a federal hearing just days away, state officials apparently panicked and took the entire training offline, at least temporarily.

Judge Roger Benitez was not amused. He admittedly administered a “horse whipping” to the state, stating, 

So the state, with a straight face, is saying that a kindergartener who says that he or she wants to transition has a right to privacy that supersedes … the parents’ 14th Amendment, long-standing — long, long, long, long-standing — right to the care, custody and control of their children?

When the state responded that they have a compelling interest to protect the rights of students to define their own gender identity apart from parental input, Benitez interrupted them by substituting the more appropriate message to a gender-confused child: “The message would be that, ‘No, young one, you have a lot of growing up. Your frontal cortex has not yet developed…You should listen to your parents.’”

Wow! Common sense from the bench.

Judge Benitez is now weighing whether or not California officials attempted to intentionally mislead the court, which would result in sanctions. All indications point to a victory for parents and educators in California, freeing them from district policies that seek to keep parents in the dark about their children’s mental health and force teachers to be the ones who deceive them.  

Oregon teachers vindicated

On the very day of that epic hearing (Nov. 17), an Oregon school district agreed to pay $650,000 to two Christian teachers fired for questioning their district’s transgender guidelines. A June ruling by the 9th Circuit Court placed the district in a difficult position when it affirmed the free speech rights of the teachers, and also allowed a religious discrimination claim against the district to proceed. Facing likely defeat in court, the district settled. 

Ohio Charlie Kirk bill

Two days later, on November 19, the Ohio House passed the “Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act,” which affirms the rights of public school educators to freely highlight the positive role of Christianity in American History. I’m thankful that Finn Laursen, my predecessor as Executive Director of Christian Educators and our current Lead Educational Consultant, was able to testify in support of the bill in front of the Ohio House Education Committee.

Freedom from preferred pronouns…for students

Finally, I am thankful for a November 6 ruling out of the 6th Circuit, which ruled that public schools cannot discipline students for refusing to use “preferred pronouns,” as that would compel students to “affirm beliefs about sex and gender that are contrary to their own deeply held beliefs.” The ruling now applies in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. 

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Despite these victories, we live in perilous times, especially for the students in our classrooms. But let’s refuse to give in to cynicism and discouragement. This Thanksgiving, let’s contend for gratitude, rejoice in the victories, give thanks in the difficult seasons, and trust that God is working all things together for good. Let your gratitude well up into hope in God’s amazing grace to flow through you at your school.