Truly Thankful

When life leaves you feeling uncertain counteract it with being thankful.

Just the other week, my son did a Facebook posting where he mentioned ten things most people do not know about him. I would like to put a twist on that and give you a list of thirteen things I am truly thankful for at Thanksgiving:

1-I am truly thankful that I still have most of my hair.  Sounds like a dumb one, but who really gets to choose.  However, if I lose all my hair, I will simply be thankful for baseball hats and wear them all the time.

2-I am thankful God still performs miracles.  I could go on about this one, but all I need do is point to my ten-year-old Chinese daughter and marvel how God brought her into a family, that was not eligible to adopt her, nor could afford to do so.  Yet, God in His infinite goodness, defied the odds.

3- I am truly thankful for every breath that I take.  You just never know when it could be your last.  With that being said, we should all live each day like our obituary will be in tomorrow’s newspaper.

4-I am truly thankful that I have a job.  During these tough economic times, I have been blessed. However, if I were to lose my job, I hope that I would continue to feel as blessed.

5- I am truly thankful that I have heat in my car.  Strange, but at times in the past month it did not work and seemingly fixed itself in the last month.

6- I am truly thankful for my recent birthday gifts.  Which were Duck Dynasty videos, Skittles , Swedishfish, an nice e-mail from son , cash and cards from other  family members.  On Sunday November 24^th, I turned forty-six, but it is the fact people remember, not the size of the gift.

7- I am thankful for Orange Gatorade, red cream soda, Planters’ Peanuts and coffee.  These are my favorite snack items, that are like comfort food and drink to my soul.  Strange how we all develop things that we would rather not do without.

8-I am truly thankful to be a dad and husband. I have mentioned this on many occasions and I still don’t feel worthy to be responsible for five other souls. It is a daunting, yet rewarding tasks I would never trade for the world.

9- I am truly thankful for football games on Thanksgiving.  I love eating too much and then watching professionals exert themselves to entertain me.  I know I am twisted.  Personally I would rather play myself, but at my age, I'd pull hamstring getting up in the morning to go play. 

10- I am truly thankful for a new dog.  Reese, is a ten-year-old Beagle mix my family and I got about a week or so ago from the animal rescue shelter.  His intended purpose is to is to help teach the girls some responsibility and to help Lia get more accustomed to dogs so that one day she can have an seeing eye dog.

11- I am truly thankful to be an American.  I have visited other countries and have always loved coming home.  The Pilgrims were on to something when they sailed over here to make a new life for themselves and their families.

12- I am truly thankful for electricity.  Just two years around Halloween, my family and I lost electricity for almost a week when we had that freak snow storm.  The ability to keep food cold, ourselves warm, and use lights to see at night is a honor which we should be thrilled about every day of our lives.

13-I am truly thankful that Jesus came to save us all, myself included, from our sins.  This list could go on and on, but let me stop here just to remind us all about someone who accepted few privileges.  In about a month, we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ who was born in a stinky, smelly manger, where animals live. It was where he and his family were stuck only after all the inns rejected them. It was devoid of many of the luxuries, I have personally listed and where Mary gave birth to Jesus.  

God, in his infinite wisdom, was not concerned about extras, not even when it came to the birth of His own Son.  On top of that, the king of the land decreed that all the male babies, under the age of two, be killed.  And we think it's  rough if the turkey gravy isn’t just right for Thanksgiving dinner.  Yet, Jesus came anyway, just for us, so someday we might have the chance to be a part of His forever family.

Thankfully, Jesus inconvenienced himself so I wouldn’t be eternally out of luck. 

Happy Thanksgiving, Swavel

Added Flavor

To live a most rewarding life hate less and try as many new things as humanly possible.

A few years ago I got hooked on a new flavor of coffee called pumpkin spice.  As fate would have it there was free coffee at work and I tried it because no one else was.  Over a short period of time pumpkin spice became like a new found friend, something I looked forward to having every time I got near it.  It became like an added flavor in my life.

It was surprising that this new found flavor was so enticing because I was never really fond of pumpkin anything.  A few years previous I had started eating pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving time because it was there.  Pumpkin pie smell reminds me to be thankful. Not to mention a nice slice of pie with whipped cream on it really hits the spot during the holidays.  Now just the smell of pumpkin spice coffee reminds me of Thanksgiving and reminds me that so I’m glad I took a chance and tried something new.

For example, trying new things and adding new flavor to our life often requires us to step outside our comfort zone.  Just the other week I received a text from my twenty year old niece, Erica asking if I could help her with a special request.  Her request was for me to join her in the father/daughter dance at her wedding a year from now.  

The reason Erica asked me was her father, Ed, passed away four years ago from brain cancer.  Subsequently, her cousin and my daughter, Alisha, changed her address to Heaven thirteen years ago as well.  So, even though I am a horrible dancer with no rhythm, and dance sort of like Elaine from Seinfeld, I said yes.  I know that I cannot replace her dad, yet what an honor and privilege to stand in for a man such as her dad that she/we loved so much.

Dancing with my niece got me to thinking about dancing with Alisha in heaven, an added flavor that for so long I couldn’t wait to add.   Soon after Alisha, who I had nicknamed Pumpkin Face, went to be Jesus in heaven I obsessed over dancing with her. It was if I was placing dancing with Alisha over seeing Jesus and soon thereafter changed my thinking. It is a strong belief of mine I will see her again, so, I will wait with great expectation knowing our time will come, dance or no dance.  Hope is the flavor I live with these days.   Just to be with Jesus and my Pumpkin Face and so many others, like Ed, Erica’s dad, will be enough.  

Just recently, I heard a song that added another new flavor in my life.  It’s amazing how music has a way of soothing, yet pointing us ahead at the same time.. Steven Curtis Chapman, who has lost his own daughter, Maria, in an accident at the age of five, wrote a song about looking forward to be reunited with loved ones.  It is actually a song dedicated to his grandmother who just recently passed.  This song, “See You in a Little While” has become a source of encouragement for me and my wife.

Music just has its own way of adding a flavor you didn’t know you were missing in your life till you hear it and then you become attached to how it enhances your life. Listen in and you will hear why “See You in a Little While” has my wife and I  looking forward to being with our daughter  someday soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsA-h_vIU_Y

Lastly, when it comes to adding new flavors I would be remise not to mention how important it is to gather new found friends.   Even, if it requires acquiring a taste for them in the process, if they are not normally are not your cup of tea, or coffee in my case. To have friends one must show himself friendly. 

Good things are all around us beckoning us with effervescent tones to drink them in, whether they be people or coffee flavors. The world is a richer place when we are actively searching it out.

If being thankful were a spice, it would be pumpkin.

 

.Swavel