Is your Friday black?
It doesn’t have to be.
Many people look forward to Black Friday shopping. Others think it should be banned. Some love the challenge of finding the best deals. Others rant about how terrible it is to enter the shopping fray one day after focusing on being thankful. After all, doesn’t “Black” Friday imply an attitude of selfish, trample-everyone-in-my-way, unchristian, black-hearted evilness?
Um, not necessarily. As this post explains, there are three possibilities for how the term Black Friday came into common usage. And regardless of the term’s origin, Black Friday shoppers need not resort to black, ungrateful attitudes.
The bottom line on Black Friday
Can you shop without losing your sense of thankfulness?
I think that is the real question, on Black Friday or any other day. Between now and January there will be plenty of over-hyped, over-crowded shopping opportunities. How will we face them? Will we allow holiday crowds to frustrate us? Will we enter into the every-man-for-himself spirit? Or will we choose to act graciously even when some rude shopper pushes in front of us in line or runs over our foot in her race to the next great deal?
Can we remember to be thankful that we have such abundance? That buying gifts for others is an opportunity to show love, not a burden of unwanted expectations?
Can we be the ones practicing random acts of kindness instead of random acts or rudeness?
I hope so.
Click here for more trivia on Black Friday.
Click here for some easy tips on cultivating gratitude.
Or watch the video below for a moving perspective on gratitude. (If you don’t have time to watch it all, skip to 4:47 to see the most important part.)