My Thanksgiving Resolution

As Thanksgiving Day winds down and I find myself a little bit comatose due to eating too much and sleeping too little for the past couple of days, I can’t help but think of all I have to be thankful for.  Sometimes I just have to stop and wonder how I can ever find anything at all to grumble about!?!?  I mean, seriously!?!?  How can someone with the amazing bounty of blessings I have been given ever take any of that for granted and instead choose to complain about some petty irritation I choose to focus on?

As a mom, I spend the majority of my energy focused on doing what I can to help my children grow into responsible, caring, compassionate young adults who go out into the world with a heart for serving others, for giving to others in return for the amazing blessings they have been given, and for experiencing this life God gave them to its fullest.  I have been blessed to watch them begin to learn to do just that, and it brings me joy I cannot begin to describe, but it doesn’t happen without a cost.

As I spent time this week preparing for Thanksgiving, and time today finalizing preparations and saying prayers of gratitude for all our family has been blessed with.  I kept thinking about how sad I am that my Megan isn’t here with us this year.  I kept feeling bad that our children would be spending their first Thanksgiving ever not all together, and feeling sorry for myself that I wouldn’t have them all under the same roof on this day of saying thank you.  And then, I realized how ridiculous that is and I straightened myself out right then and there!

You see, Megan is doing just what I prayed for her to be able to do…she is out there experiencing this life God has given her to its fullest.  She has taken the gifts God blessed her with and she has worked to develop them and grow them and use them to take her places she never would have gone otherwise.  She has used her gifts of caring and compassion and she has developed friendships with amazing kids from all over the world.  In fact, as I write this, she is celebrating Thanksgiving in Greenwich, CT with a friend she has made at college and I couldn’t be more thankful that she and Emma are such good friends or that Emma’s family has so warmly welcomed Megan to join their family to celebrate Thanksgiving.  I couldn’t be more thankful that my daughter is out there, living life, experiencing life, and sharing God’s love with people she never would have met if she hadn’t been so willing to trust God to lead her where He would have her go.

I also see these same wonderful qualities in my Kate.  She has grown into an amazing young woman who has embraced every challenge placed in front of her and has worked hard (harder than I can even believe sometimes) to grow stronger and develop her skills and abilities to the fullest so she can experience this life.  She is strong and confident and willing to put herself out there.  She is learning WHO she is and that she can stand firm in that, no matter what choices those around her make.  She feels outrage at social injustices and feels driven to try to make things better for others.  I have no doubt that she, too, will seek God’s will for her life and will follow the path He lays for her, wherever that may take her.

And Jake.  My Jake who has been so quiet and reserved for so long and has begun to find his voice.  My Jake who is becoming strong and confident, knowing who he is, and who God designed him to be.  I have loved watching him grow and mature and seeing him step out of his comfort zone and begin to follow his own dreams and seek out the path God has in store for him, as well.  My Jake who understands so much and sees so much and who has a seemingly unending compassion for others and who has a quiet determination to stand firm in who he is, regardless of who everyone else around him chooses to be.  There is no part of me that isn’t certain that Jake is going to do amazing things, wherever his blessings take him in life.

My Nick and Emma are still so young, but I have begun to see these qualities in them, too.  I have begun to see them grow and mature and be more certain of what they believe and who they are.  I see them making quality choices in friends and finding groups and activities to join that match their talents, and learning how to be quality teammates who support the group as a whole and work for the good of all, regardless of what might be best for them personally and I am so grateful for this. 

 

As I stop to think about the amazing blessings I have been given as a result of the great gift of being a mother to these wonderful children, and the amazing life I have been blessed to share with my husband, who is also my friend (and who could ask for a better blessing than that…spending your life with your best friend?  With someone you can talk to about anything and who is your greatest cheerleader and supporter?  With someone who believes in you, even when you don’t believe in you?), I can’t imagine that there could ever be ANYTHING to complain about! 

 

And so, I am about to begin a NEW tradition for me…rather than making New Year’s resolutions, I am going to make just ONE Thanksgiving resolution.  I resolve to focus my energy and attention on noticing all I have to be thankful for, not just today and not just a year from now when Thanksgiving rolls around again, but EVERY day that I am blessed to wake up and begin a new day.  And I don’t mean a Facebook post every day in November that finds something new to say thank you for.  I mean a REAL choice to focus on having a thankful heart.  I mean waking up every day and making time to set my mind on all I have been blessed with, in hopes that by choosing to pay attention to that, I can choose to let the petty complaints of day-to-day life go, to know that sometimes these blessings of mine will also bring me heartache as their desire to embrace God’s plan for their life may take them far from home for a season or more.  Maybe instead I can choose to see this life through the eyes I hope my children see it through…something to be grateful for and to experience fully.  It’s worth a try, right? :)