Tag: thanks

Thanksgiving

~ Kristin ~ Leave a comment

Today is the day when women across the country are in motion.  If we haven’t already, we are cleaning our houses, picking up groceries, preparing our turkeys, and getting the guest room ready.  Even the slow-risers among us, yes, even me, fly out of bed on a day like today to start the to-do list in order to be ready for the big day tomorrow — Thanksgiving Day.

  • run to post office
  • exercise
  • get groceries
  • make pie
  • change sheets in guest room
  • prepare turkey
  • make green bean casserole
  • dust
  • vacuum

Does your list look similar?  We hustle and bustle to get things just right.  We may get a little snippy with the people around us, but, come on, we have a lot to do!  Anybody can see that!  Do they think that golden turkey just magically appears in the middle of a beautifully decorated dining room table?  Did that pie make itself?  I don’t think so!

Been there?  Yeah, me too.

Can today be different?  I hope so.  It has started out differently already.

I did burst forth from my bed and prepare several packages to be mailed.  But, while I was doing that, my husband tackled the ant invasion in the kitchen (ants?!?!? in November!?!?), then changed one set of sheets and cleaned the bathroom.  (Yes, I do realize I have a winner.)  I put sweet potatoes in the oven to roast and then read my devotion.  In a bit, I will drop off those packages on my way to the gym, then pick up the items I need from the grocery store. I’ll come home and prepare my green bean casserole and make a pumpkin pie.  I can probably convince my son to vacuum, but I will likely have to dust.  And then, I think I will sip tea while I wait for the arrival of our daughter.

Yes, it’s still going to be a big day.  And, I have to admit that I’m already in a significant amount of pain before the day has even started. But, I am going to try to take a different approach.  In the past, I have launched forth, guns blazing, conquering my to-do list as though I was in mortal combat.  Today?  Today I am going to move slowly. I’m going to look in the eyes of the postal clerk when he asks me if I’d like to insure my packages. I’m going to smile at the gym attendant who swipes my card when I enter.  I am going to allow others at the grocery store to go ahead of me in line and not get exasperated with the ones who are cranky (I’ve been there).  Then, I am going to come home and play my music loudly while I do my cooking.

Throughout it all I am going to be praying — for safe travel for our daughter and all others who are on the roads or in the air today, for a cloud of thankfulness to cover our celebration tomorrow, for special blessings on the family who can’t be with us, for health and healing for everyone we know and love, and for peace beyond my comprehension to cover me as I move through my day.

And I’m also going to be thanking — for this grace period, for a beautiful immediate and extended family, for a husband who cleans the bathroom and conquers ants, for my little house by the river, for this next chapter. 

Philipians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything,

but in every situation, by prayer and petition,

with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Thank you

~ Kristin ~ Leave a comment

Military roots run deep in this family.

My father-in-law enlisted in the Army in the mid 1950s, and stayed in the Reserves until his retirement.

My father enlisted in Marines in the late 1950s and served his tour in California. His brothers all served, too.

My brother-in-law attended West Point in the early 1980s and served in Germany before he became a Reservist. He later re-activated and did two tours in the Middle East, worked in the Pentagon, and retired just recently.  He now works for FEMA, continuing to serve our country.

My husband enlisted in the Army ROTC at Central Michigan University in the early 1980s. He served as a reservist until we were married in 1990.

My sister enlisted in the Navy in the mid 1980s and served as a recruiter until her retirement.  She also now works for the federal government.

My nephew enlisted in the Air Force ROTC when he began his studies at MIT. He is now an officer and an aeronautical engineer working for the USAF.

It came as no surprise two and a half years ago when our son told us he was enlisting in the Army.  He has been wearing fatigues since he was 18 months old.  He and his dad (and certainly his sisters) spent hours on the floor setting up little plastic green Army guys in intricate patterns.  He was awe-struck by his uncle — his uniform and his huge responsibilities.  And, he always knew the serious calling that the military was — the willingness to lay it all down for people you love and for people you don’t even know.  He knew that signing on the line was agreeing to that.

So did all the others, and they still agreed to it.  Every one of them.

Countless men and women have signed on the line.  They have agreed to wear the uniform day in and day out.  They have agreed to years of minimal pay, mediocre food, long hours, and looming danger to protect people they love and people they have never met.

They get a few perks.  This past weekend our son got four days off from work.  He got to run a 10-mile race for his battalion with a team of fifteen other guys. They get camaraderie — buddies they will have for the rest of their lives.  They get world travel — our son went for three weeks to South Africa on a training mission. They get world class training — in everything from navigation to first aid to strategy to firearms.

They also have the daily risk, even when they are just training, that someone won’t make it.  They train hard to be in the top physical condition so that they will be able to withstand extreme circumstances.  They learn to jump out of aircraft in the dark of night so that they can land in territory where they have never walked. They practice firing weapons so that they can with speed and accuracy take out an enemy.

They do a lot of things that you and I would rather not know about.  And they do them willingly to protect us at risk of their own lives.

For this we take one day each year, today, to say thank you.

So, thank you.  We are proud of you and of your sacrifice.

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this; to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.