Finding Thanksgiving

I was talking with my daughter this morning and the conversation turned to this topic:

"I can't wrap my head around the fact that next Thursday is Thanksgiving."

And that's truth.

2015, like many other years past, has been a vapor. It has been everything from peaceful to roaring chaotic and all in between. The highs have been high and the lows have been low. Bad decisions were made as were good ones and things I promised myself I would accomplish this year....well...most haven't happened.

Now, I could get really down about that last statement, and if I am honest with you, have found myself doing that at times.

And that's okay, and here's why:

Because in the midst of all our plans, hopes and dreams...life happens. Folks get sick, need help. Job situations change. Births happen, as well as deaths. Children grow and that is a constant and good change! Groceries have to be bought, bills have to be paid, laundry has to be done, meals have to be cooked and homes have to be cleaned.

So in the midst of life today, I was thinking that maybe some of us have lost Thanksgiving. Like, really lost it. Oh, we can say that we are thankful for this or thankful for that, but we have truly lost Thanksgiving. In the middle of this happening life, it's easy to focus on the sadness, the emptiness, the loneliness. It's easy to focus on finances not going as far as we'd like, especially when we know right behind Thanksgiving will be Christmas.

Yes, we should have prepared better. Yes, we should have stayed home more.Yes, we should have cooked at home instead of hitting up the drive thru.  Because let's be honest....birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas come at the same time every single year. Those are three days that should never catch us off guard, yet we always find ourselves under the gun, family activities bearing down on us and there we are again.....

I'm asking you...and myself...to start right now looking for Thanksgiving. Looking for and truly believing in your heart, to the point your heart is singing so loudly you can't believe it, that life IS beautiful and it IS fun and that it IS a blessing! Don't look behind and don't look in the future. We just cannot change the past and the future is in God's hands and if we're doing all we can for those future things, God will do all we can't and if those future things don't play out like we'd prayed for, God will take care of us through that as well.

Look at today. Look at the physical today. Look at your spouse, look at your children, look at your home....the picture might not look as our heart would like it to, but in those things I believe we can find Thanksgiving.

In finding Thanksgiving we are making a choice, we are choosing to enjoy today. We are choosing to be thankful for today. Share that with someone. With  lots of someones!!! If you're struggling to see Thanksgiving, you may have to share with a lot of  people and you may have to say it over and over but you will begin to see Thanksgiving emerging and I'm sure, before long, you will have found exactly what you've been looking for....happiness and thanksgiving.