Hello November, Hello Thanksgiving. When November comes calling, the wreaths come hanging and the leaves come falling. Oh! What beauty it brings. But for many Christian working women and business professionals, Thanksgiving season could also be a reminder of failed dreams in the year, the dread of uncomfortable family conversations around the table, the endless burden of entertaining and the reminder of a boisterous Christmas season ahead. As women, these worries can becloud our thinking just like Martha in the Bible who, in the presence of the Master, was overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of life. But, most often, we don a mask, hide the worries behind well made-up faces and put on a smile that we take off once our guests turn around. Do you feel bad about these conflicting feelings in your heart?
Thanksgiving Stress for Christian Working Women and Business Women
For many Christian business women and corporate professionals, Thanksgiving doesn’t just bring family obligations, it also brings the pressure of year-end performance reviews, financial targets, business projections, long work hours, and the emotional load of balancing career, calling, and home. The season becomes a tug-of-war between professional expectations and personal realities. And yet, beneath the deadlines and the demands, God invites us to rediscover gratitude, slow down, and remember that our worth is not tied to productivity, results, or how perfectly we manage it all.
Like Martha, your worries are not without cause. Afterall, you cannot turn back the hands of time to reclaim unrealized dreams and goals. You cannot fight inflation or suddenly make your paycheck or bank balance any more buoyant. You have no control over the tempers that would rise at the Thanksgiving dinner table. In the midst of these internal squabbles, you are bamboozled with advertisements of Thanksgiving specials on TV and along comes the Christmas shopping spree and the news is riddled with stories of unemployment, the cost of groceries and rising consumer debt. Oh, your heart; aching for some relief. Where does the relief come from?
Thanksgiving And The Weight Of Modern Worry
Modern life focuses on several things:
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External Validation.
Externalities would be where we get our validation: beauty standards, achievements, results. In contrast, our Christian faith calls us to look unto God for our validation. His standards inform our standards: in beauty, internal; In achievements, eternal.
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Consumerism.
Consumerism overshadows the essence of a thing. Where thanksgiving should be about reflection and gratitude, consumerism makes it about endless acquisition.
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Speed.
Speed is a thief of memory. Memory calls for attention and encoding – a deep and slow process that calls us to a place of recall. But in an age of instant gratification, aka, the microwave generation, we are always on the go. We want what we want, and we want it now. In the process, we fail to appreciate the beauty and results of our daily grind.
To break free from these limitations that get in the way of the deep-seated truth of our current state, we need to consciously switch our attention to what really matters.
Reclaiming Peace This Thanksgiving; Reframe Your Focus
If you are caught up in the trappings of modern life that threatens your inner peace, it is time to switch attention to what really matters. But what really matters? You may ask. The answer will vary from person to person but here is a framework to rely on.
Slow Down And Reflect; Thanksgiving Reflection.
For corporate professionals, business owners, and high-achieving Christian women, this intentional pause is especially critical because your mind rarely gets the stillness needed for true spiritual and emotional renewal. In the Butterfly Bayou Go for Goals booklet, we intentionally dedicate November to Thanksgiving – a time to pause and reflect. This simple guide helps women stay accountable to their goals through monthly check-ins and journaling.
In our fast-paced world, even ten minutes of consistent reflection can quiet the noise and reconnect us to what matters. Start small, just ten minutes a day and build from there. For me, evenings work best. While some give God the first part of their day, I’ve found that ending my day with reflection, prayer, and gratitude helps me process the day’s highs and lows and prepare my heart for tomorrow.
Reframe Your Struggles.
“You don’t know what my life is like,” you say. And you’re right—I don’t. But I do know that reframing your struggles is possible, not through feel-good platitudes, but through deep conviction. For years, my daughter’s chronic sinus issues drained our time, finances, and joy. I felt helpless, even wishing I could experience her pain just to understand it. One day, while venting to a friend, I was struck by a memory: a season when she was recovering from surgery and I fell ill from the stress—yet still had to care for both of us. That moment reframed everything. Though her condition persists, I now say, “Lord, thank You for my health, so I can care for us both.” Gratitude didn’t erase the struggle, but it gave me strength to endure it.
Your turn, what thought do you have to reframe? Did you begin a business this year or step into a new corporate role, only to find out things were not as expected? The onset of entrepreneurial journeys can easily introduce uncertainty and self-doubt into the equation of life. You thought it would be less stressful, but you find yourself working 60 hours instead of 40 hours and the customers aren’t coming in as you envisioned. A new corporate role is a future you have never experienced so it is understandable if the reality is different from your expectation. Well, you may not be where you envision but you are not where you were when you started or even dreamed it.
When we reframe our situation with deep conviction, we find gratitude through our challenges and suffering.
Trusting God For Hope This Thanksgiving
So, maybe you’re thinking, ‘Thanksgiving is not for me this year.’ There are those seasons, right. It feels all dreary and wintery. Many working women and women entrepreneurs feel this way when career goals, business targets, or family responsibilities feel overwhelming. There is a key scripture I hold on to in seasons like this. Eccl 9:4: “For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.” If nothing else, you are here. There is a tendency to let the failures of yesterday steal the joys of tomorrow. But what do you know about tomorrow? Nothing. We may have assumptions and scenarios but nothing of certainty. But there is one who knows tomorrow and He is the author. We can entrust tomorrow to His care and thank Him for the fact that there is HOPE. In Job 17:4, it says, “At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.” So, if everything feels cut down around you, the fact that you are here, joined to the living, there is hope.
But a major question would be, how does that tree find the nutrients to sprout again? By getting and staying connected to the source.
Get Connected This Thanksgiving
Connect With God.
In Psalm 1:3, we find the answer, “That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.” A thanksgiving heart in a culture based on externalities, consumerism and speed can only be derived from being connected to our source. At Butterfly Bayou, we encourage every woman in the community to continually seek God’s direction for their lives and find the courage to pursue it.
Connect in Faith-led Communities.
Community is where we exist with others. Especially in a culturally and technologically fragmented society, there is an increasing need for true human connection. For women in the Houston area and all over, we welcome you at Butterfly Bayou is a faith-based, women’s focused growth community designed to help women dig deep and discovery their dreams, definition of their goals and find the courage to walk in their calling. We do this through a hybrid (in-person and virtual) monthly accountability membership program, a book club to keep growing in knowledge and affordable one-on-one coaching for those who need initial help clarifying their starting point and personal accountability towards consistent growth actions.
So, what are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? Switching your attention and reframing your thoughts may not change the situation you face. But it will challenge you to dig beyond the surface for the things that deeply matter, blessings that are hidden in the smokescreen of turbulent waters and look forward to tomorrow with expectancy. Write and let me know what are thankful for, what you are reframing and how your season of reflection is drawing you closer to God and trusting him for a brighter tomorrow.
For business women, entrepreneurs, and corporate professionals seeking faith-based encouragement, this season offers a powerful opportunity to slow down, reflect, and rediscover gratitude.
Butterfly Bayou: A Community Rooted in Faith and Growth
Butterfly Bayou brings together women from every walk of life and career stage, providing a supportive faith-based community that empowers you to grow with purpose.
My name is Omena Abenabe and I am the Founder and Business Manager at Butterfly Bayou. Butterfly Bayou is a faith-based women’s-focused growth community designed to help women build, balance and thrive. Butterfly Bayou was built out of my personal experience and observation of trend that see women today build, crash and burn.
Through our book club, hybrid (in-person and virtual) our monthly accountability meetups, and affordable one-on-one coaching program, we seek God’s will for our lives, find the courage to take action towards our goals and take consistent steps to ensure we stay on course in a manner that aligns with His will.
