We spent this afternoon putting out Christmas decorations. Pat crawled on the roof and I got out the tree, the nativity scenes, lights, garland, and ornaments. There's still more to do, and it's not Thanksgiving yet, but since we are traveling to Nebraska for Thanksgiving, I thought it might be nice to come home to the holiday spirit.
Holiday spirit, Parker says, is when you don't walk around saying, "Bah, humbug."
I love love Christmas. Well, as much as you can love a holiday. But it's better than Cheesecake Factory cheesecake, which is saying an awful lot.
But I've never really gotten into Thanksgiving. You eat turkey. There's a football game or six rumbling on the TV. You never really know what to wear because the weather, down here? it could be 70 degrees, or it could snow, like it did last year.
And you give thanks for all the great things that God has provided you. And to me, that's a no-brainer. Do we need a special day to do that?
However, this morning, our pastor asked us to praise God for the hard stuff that has come into our life.
Yeah, that makes for a fun conversation.
The thing is, I have had some conversations with God this year--about the bad stuff--but it wasn't necessarily to thank Him.
I don't think, "Thanks a lot, God" would count as truly thankful.
But what if I changed my sarcastic, entitled, bratty attitude?
So I'm thanking God this year, even for the bad stuff. I'm thanking God for my heartache and pain, because this year, people near and dear went to see Him...to spend eternity with Him.
What's not great about that? What's not to be grateful about?
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
