I love Thanksgiving.
Planning the menu and preparing the meal. Spending the day among family and missing those who are absent . Reminiscing of prior Thanksgivings and savoring the one at hand. A day devoted to focusing on all we have to be thankful for. Realizing, too, that we only scratch the surface when counting our blessings, for there are too many to count.
Lest you think me a modern-day Pollyanna, I confess there's plenty I pray about, hurt over, rue, mourn, miss, oppose. etc. I just pray fervently that no matter what the world throws at us, we'll never lose sight of those countless blessings and thus keep the world and our perceived woes in perspective.
Today is the day after Thanksgiving. A great place to be for reflecting on the day just passed and the official start of the Christmas season and all that it entails.
As I write this I'm sitting at my kitchen counter, listening to incredible music, and of course, reflecting. I hear Christopher and his cousin Andrew playing downstairs (I love 10-yr old exuberance!), as well as Abbey and Kenneth getting Christmas lights ready for outside, and all the while Trudy is scampering a circuitous path among us. Next to me are my Christmas cards. A tradition that is bittersweet. I probably blogged about it last year.Just so you have the correct impression, a vision from Currier and Ives we're not. My phone has been going crazy with texts from my older kids asking how shopping is, what time we got out, etc. Actually our weather is expected to turn bad tomorrow so we decided to postpone or cancel shopping today and put up outside lights instead. The kids are aghast! They remember being woken up at unbelievably early morning hours to go out amongst crowds of like-minded bargain shoppers all because their dad used to work in retail and he likes to be on the other side of the counter now. They really never minded the cool electronics they would usually receive at Christmas from those early-morning jousts, um, I mean jaunts, though.
Life Lessons... It's taken me way too many years, but I am finally learning a few life lessons. I'm learning that life has to be lived in a more deliberate fashion and less by the seat of one's pants, so to speak. I'm not always good at explaining what I'm thinking so I'll just say that Andy Stanley explains it well in his book "The Best Question Ever." There are also great lessons in Beth Moore's 'Daniel' Bible study. Using exercise as a brief example, it seems we (people in general) never find time to exercise because we don't intentionally plan for it or add it to our busy calendars as we would any important task or appointment. We usually just try to work it in to already busy lifestyles. Or, final analogy, people rarely plan on becoming overweight but don't intentionally take steps to prevent it. We don't plan on a lot of things but don't intentionally take preventive steps. Anyway, I don't know how I started on this tangent but it's been on my mind so I guess I'm sharing - or maybe venting?
So, getting back on track, I hope your Thanksgiving day was warm and wonderful. I pray you have many things to be thankful for. With Christmas fast approaching I particularly hope the season brings you JOY and WONDER. Finally, that the New Year adds to your blessings and perhaps a resolution to live and love intentionally.
