As we leave November and cruise into December, I am ever so thankful for those opportunities that remind me daily to look at the bigger picture. Where we are is not where we used to be! My post last year at this time reminds me in particular how grateful we are to grow in our circumstance.
That Was Then
Ever realize that once you decide to do something you are given many opportunities to exercise your decision? For example, deciding to work out in a new season of health, only to pull a muscle. You have to find a new and different way to keep to your decision! Right!
That is how this week has gone for me….and it is only Monday. Saturday night my friend lost her husband and Sunday night I found myself in the ER with mine – pulmonary embolism! Really?! Are you kidding…no precursor..no warning…no long flight or car-ride. Boom.
This does not fit into our schedule. Our plan.
These events are independent of each other and certainly not as a result of my decision to start this journey on 30 days of thankfulness. However, these events are creating opportunities to really define how proceed I on this journey. Quit? Stop writing? Sleep (tempting at this moment!)?
I am thankful the embolism is treatable. Aside from some pain and discomfort, my husband will prevail. My friend’s husband did not make it.
Thankfulness today looks like friends rallying around me with the effort of a simple text. Those efforts have come as a result of sowing seeds into intentional relationships over time. Relationships are important. We do what we can, when we can for those in our life that are important. Not just those that are the same as us. It is a give and take Some seasons may look more like take than others- this too shall pass!
So today my thankfulness is reflected in the individual acts that each are huge to us….
Thank you for the dinner for my family.
Thank you for taking my son to Boy Scouts.
Thank you for coming to sit with my husband when I could not.
Thank you for the texts of encouragement and thoughts in the midst of everyday life.
Thankful for all that were willing at a moment’s notice if there was a need.
Thankful that for today there was not a greater need.
This Is Now
Last year our big moment in the ER turned into plans that had not been anticipated. All the big feels and emotions came flooding to the surface. Our journey did not end in the ER. We had life-altering choices and changes that have had to be made this past year.
We made the changes.
Change in any season is difficult. We decided to add moving to the mix as well this last year. Only we have yet to find a house. Minor details.
And so, this season, we move into Christmas with a little lego Christmas tree and no presents – only presence.
The words from then ring true to now:
Thankfulness today looks like friends rallying around me with the effort of a simple text. Those efforts have come as a result of sowing seeds into intentional relationships over time. Relationships are important. We do what we can, when we can for those in our life that are important. Not just those that are the same as us. It is a give and take. Some seasons may look more like take than others- this too shall pass!
We are better together.
Today consider your neighbor, co-worker, friend, family member. What can you bring that may seem minor but helps to show them that their faith can be bigger than their circumstance.
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