It is Thanksgiving...

So many thoughts, so many things to say. Growing up Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday. It was a time when the whole family came together and just had fun. We ate too much, watched football, played cards and talked a lot. It was kind of like Christmas but without all the decorations and without all the presents. No one had lists, no one got me socks and we actually got to spend more time just being around family members talking than we did on Christmas because there was not a three hour block of time taken out to open presents.

Now Thanksgiving is a bit different. For only the second time in my life I will be around no one from my family on Thanksgiving. In the past 11 years (since I moved away from home) I have only been back with my whole family 3 times. Until this year I have had someone (Chris or Dad) around me on Thanksgiving. I have amazing friends and I have spent Thanksgiving with their families most years and this year is no exception. I will be going with my roommate to his parents house. My friend Abigail had her family decide to leave town last minute so she is coming with me. She didn't really want to come to a house full of people she doesn't know but I didn't think it was right that she was alone on Thanksgiving.

So what is Thanksgiving to me? If this year it isn't about family then what is it about? My parents always wanted us to remember that we were thanking God for all that He has done for us. Without God where would any of us be? I know that we should all live a life of thanksgiving and we shouldn't need a day set aside to give thanks to our Maker, but life can get crazy sometimes. We get caught up in our jobs or in just the little things that happen every day and we lose sight of what is important.

I try to set some time aside every day to thank God for my family, my friends and the fact that I am still here. I have been in 2 car accidents that I shouldn't have walked away from and yet I am still here. Now I say I try to do that every day, but like everyone else I have times where I start to get my priorities out of balance and things that don't matter take center stage.

Well last night I got one more dose of reality and it brought things back to where they needed to be. My friend has been witnessing to someone she works with and last night he asked Jesus to come into his life. This is the second person in the past 3 months that she has led to the Lord by just being a witness to them in her everyday life. I have told her this before but Teri inspires me to be a better witness and a better reflection of God's love when I go out into the world. I know she isn't perfect but she tries to show the love of God in everything she does. When I heard about the guy getting saved last night it made me remember that the most important thing to be thankful for today is the fact that God sent His only son to die in my place so that I could have eternal life with Him. I am thankful that my parents made the decision to raise me in a Christian home. I am thankful that they portrayed God's love to me and taught me who He was from the time I was born until now. I am thankful that even though I am going to be 200 and 2000 miles away from my parents today, they will both remember me when they pray and list me with the things they are thankful for. I have been blessed more than I deserve and more than I can ever repay, so now all I can do is thank God and try to go out and be a blessing.

I am asking you, what do you have to be thankful for? I know that my upbringing is not typical. My parents are amazing and I have a huge family that loves me and they love each other. You may not have that, but remember this one thing; we ALL have a God that loves us. Jesus died so that we all could live and if you say you have nothing else to be thankful for today, remember that Jesus loves you and so do I.

I had a friend tell me not too long ago that she had nothing left in life. I reminded her that she had Jesus and me...and I was pretty sure she had other things too. We forget sometimes that although things may not be going exactly how we want them to go they are still going better than they could be! We have a God who loves us, food to eat, a place to live and a place to work. Now it is possible that someone who reads this will say that they don't have one of those things, I know personally of places in all the areas that I have lived that will help you if you are truly in need but most of you reading this are not in that situation. It is all in perspective.