Showing Your Thanks

I'm amazed and grateful for what different families bring to the Thanksgiving table and to the event itself. We are all brought up having holidays a certain way, but then we get married and find ourselves shocked that not everyone celebrates the same way.

For instance, when I was first married, I found out that not everyone had homemade noodles and ambrosia on their meal menu. But it was also a shock to discover how much more taste is packed into sweet potatoes, when they don't come out of a can. And the same for cranberries. I found out how easily you could make your own whole berry sauce and how actually divine it would taste with a small dollop of real whipped cream. These additions came from Dean's family, where we spent most of our holidays in the first years of our marriage.

Now that our daughter is married and we have been attending their larger festivities, I am learning other wonderful things about Thanksgiving. As much as a linen tablecloth, your best dishes, and even cloth napkins make it a special feast, the food tastes just as good, no matter what it's served on. As a matter of fact, it's rather nice to have the attention drawn to the people sitting at the table, rather than the table itself.

I can see from these observations that our church family will grow and get better, when we all bring our best to the table too and learn and adapt new and better ways to serve God. Let's keep that in mind as we approach His throne with thanksgiving this season. Show God your thanks by your offerings of service to Him.

whipped cream, cranberries sauce, and fruit salad (what a delicious combination!)

What Families Do

Dad. Uncle. Brother-in-law. The man who's coming for a last-minute visit this weekend will find many family members vying for his attention. We are looking forward to his advice (as Dad), his teasing (as Uncle), and his handyman expertise (as brother-in-law). He will be one busy man, but I gather he's looking forward to the adventure too with his boring assignment in Kansas City looming in front of him for a few more weeks.

That's what families do though. They help each other. They receive help from each other. And no one keeps count. That's how it should be in our churches too. Church is another support system to rely on. And so important, especially if your biological family lives far away. I don't see how people can live without them. It keeps you from being too invested in yourself or even your own immediate family. We are made to mingle. And God gave us a whole day every week to do it. Let your next Sabbath be about family.

Thanksgiving--Round Two

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving again to include family that was absent yesterday. I was just thrilled to get my daughter here, even though it was "the day after." It was an in-law situation, and one I'm sure is encountered multiple times with other families.

It must be even more complicated to get together for stepfamilies and those who are separated geographically. Not to mention the heartache of not seeing someone at all, as the case with many military families.

The point is to be thankful for whatever situation you find yourself in this Thanksgiving, as Paul advises us to do in Ephesians 5:20: "giving thanks always for ALL things..." Don't let anything deter you from giving thanks to God our Father. He's someone we should never spend the holidays without. And we never have to! Praise God!!!