A Week of Giving Thanks: Day 5 – For Challenge

I wish I had a photo for this one, or even the right words. Somehow words and pictures seem unequal to the task of showing real gratitude here.

What I know is this: change, hurt, challenge and remaking are hard things. Too hard, often. Too hard for words, too hard for bearing.
Sometimes, all you can do is thank God for carrying you to the other side. Or thank Him that He will, someday.

It is easy to be thankful for the overcoming…and I was tempted to lie and say that that’s where I am. But instead I’ll be honest, and admit that some nights are harder than others, and on those hard nights I know that thankfulness is a discipline.

Thank-you, God, for shaping me.

A Week of Giving Thanks: Day 4 – For Peace

(my refuge, when I can get there)

After weeks of flurry and rushing from one thing to the next, today was a day for catching up, sitting down with a book, and for children mercifully falling asleep on time. Thank-you, God, for peace and rest.

A Week of Giving Thanks: Day 3 – For Laughter

If you follow me on Twitter you probably already know that I take a pretty casual approach to chores. Yes, admittedly that DOES sometimes mean they get done late, but mostly what it means is that I’m not too fussy on *how* it gets done, so long as it gets done. For instance, I don’t carry my dirty laundry down the stairs. That would be boring. And it may lead to herniated disks or somesuch (you just never know!) Instead, I take that basket of laundry and THROW its contents onto the main floor from the balcony that overlooks the front entry.

Yes. I know. Probably one of these days I’m going to shock some dear but fussy old lady who will approach the door just as I’m tossing all our underwear down. But you know what? I don’t care. Because the peals of laughter that issue forth from my children’s bellies when they see mommy throwing laundry down the stairs with the cry, “LOOK OUT BELOW!” make any threat of embarrassment seem…actually, even funnier. And if you saw the way the kids run to their rooms to search for their OWN dirty laundry that they might join the fun, well, I don’t think you’d do it any other way!

You should hear this kid's belly laugh!

Tonight was hard with the kids…we did have a great time with the laundry this afternoon, but later in the day we were tired and probably emotionally drained from the long weekend. It was really hard to get around to writing this post, because some of the battles we fought as parents ended in discouragement.

But I’m glad I did this anyway. I am so SO thankful for laughter tonight. Laughter rings of hope, gives chase to our fears, heals wounds, stirs fond memories, binds us together.

A Week of Giving Thanks: Day 2 – For Daily Bread

I know I take it for granted. Every day, my pantry has food in it. I have a whole bag of flour in there, plus two (one white, one whole wheat) that haven’t been finished yet. There’s meat in the freezer and vegetables in the crisper. I have olive oil and canola oil, butter and cheese, yogurt and grapes…a feast many people only dream of. The days of rummaging for change to buy potatoes are a memory, and even then I was blessed to afford those.

Never mind where we are compared to the Forbes 500 (ha!), never mind where we are even compared to the median income. We are so so unbelievably blessed.

More than that, we have family to laugh with, friends to share our table with, and we can sleep in peace without fear of war breaking out over our heads at night.

“Most gracious God, by whose knowledge the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew: We yield thee hearty thanks and praise for the return of seedtime and harvest, for the increase of the ground and the gathering in of its fruits, and for all the other blessings of thy merciful providence bestowed upon this nation and people.

And, we beseech thee, give us a just sense of these great mercies, such as may appear in our lives by a humble, holy, and obedient walking before thee all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost be all glory and honor, world without end. Amen.”
– The Book of Common Prayer

A Week of Giving Thanks: Day 1 – For CAC

Just a few members of the CAC Youth Worship Team

Looking back to a small room packed with people. Stage no more than four inches off the floor, filled with drums and bass and guitar, joined to voices strong or unsure. Young and full of fire, heedless of the hour growing late. We knew so little, but we knew all (isn’t that just like youth?) We gave everything we had to those moments.

I don’t think we pictured ourselves here, years later. Some dreams lost, some fulfilled. Some have wandered, some returned. I miss the simplicity of those times while I’m grateful to have come beyond them…above all I am thankful to have had them, and I treasure every memory made.