Thanksgiving

As I sit on my bed, computer in my lap, day after Thanksgiving, and realize that another milestone was reached in our lives... I have to say, I don't really feel anything.  The reason... it has been a tough week in our house.  It started out Sunday night with (what we thought) was a bad cold with Sam.  Wednesday night, the "seal" cough appeared and we knew it wasn't just a cold... it was croup.  Last night, after 5 nights of little sleep, we ended up going to Children's Hospital around 6am.  Ethan started the symptoms yesterday, and luckily, the hospital staff had mercy on us and treated him along with Sam.  And tonight, the boys have already woken up once, screaming, and it's only 9:30pm.  So, Jeff is off buying another vaporizer so we can separate the boys in hopes that they don't wake each other up.  Normally, it's no big deal when one wakes; the other just goes right on sleeping.  But, with both of them sick, they have a hard time going back to sleep while his brother is screaming in the crib next door (completely understandable... I'd have a hard time sleeping if I didn't feel good and my brother was screaming in my ear).

Why was I telling you this?!?  Oh yeah.  Thanksgiving.

So, all month I've been watching my Facebook friends post what they are thankful for each day of November... and I haven't joined in.  I'm not sure why; maybe I just don't have the energy.  There is so much to be thankful for this year: my wonderful children, incredible/supportive husband, loving parents, fun brother and sis-in-law, wonderful in-laws, friends who love us like family, jobs, our church family... and the list can go on and on.

But, I think the biggest thing I am thankful for this year is God.  I know it sounds so cheesy and cliche, a definite "churchy" answer.  But in all honesty, I am completely humbled by Him and His love for us.  It's the love of the Lord that has given me the list of wonderful things/people in the paragraph above.  I wouldn't be anywhere, have anyone, if it wasn't for the grace of God.  Who am I that God should know me?  That He should care about me?  And yet, He does... even when I don't feel like anyone is listening or cares or can relate... He is always there.  That fact alone brings me to my knees in humble adoration of the God I serve.  I am so thankful that I belong to His family.

So tonight, as I'm going to probably be up most of the night with sick boys, I will rest in the fact that this Thanksgiving, the thing that I am the most thankful for is the love of Jesus.  He is my reason for living, my reason to keep going, my reason to love.

...Give me Jesus, you can have all this world, but give me Jesus...

I will leave you with two of my favorite passages of Scripture.  My prayer is that they will bless you the way they've blessed me.

Zephaniah 3:17

The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

Psalm 139:1-12

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.  Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.  You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from you presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.