Thanksgiving Thoughts

"Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged."    Colossians 3:18-21

     Did you watch much television as a child?  I did.  I can remember watching programs like "Ozzie and Harriet", "The Patty Duke Show", and "Leave It To Beaver".  I guess that "Ozzie and Harriet" was probably my very favorite program.  I knew that they were a real family and so I thought that they were typical of all families.  

        Growing up I wondered why my family couldn't be more like that.  I thought my family to be lacking.  I wanted my family to be more like the television families that I watched each week.  But they weren't.  I wasted many a year hoping for changes that I could not bring.  I did try.  It just didn't work.  As I grew I learned that television was make believe, and that even the Nelson's weren't really as happy as the family they portrayed on their show.  There was no "happy family".  But I looked at my classmates, and later at my co-workers and saw people who wanted to spend time with their families.  They enjoyed being with each other.  It was kind of cool, but totally new to me.  I had spent most of my adult life running from my family. 

        At age 30 I had to move back my hometown to help my mother who had been confined to a wheelchair following some back surgery.  I never left.  For 20 years I stayed with them and helped out around the house, but inside,  I was aching to be free from there.   We weren't a close family and there was no love lost when I moved out.  But God works.  In some mighty strange ways.   Not that His ways are strange, but that they are strange to us because we are of the world.  At the time I left my parents home, I felt God was calling me to go.  My mother, feeling abandoned, told me she was disowning me.  "Never come back" she said. I was devastated.  I was upset to be told not to go back to a place where I had not wanted to be... go figure...  

       But God is just so amazing.  Over time He worked... on my mother... on me... on other members of my family.... I listened to Him.  I tried to be there to support my family even though they didn't want me there...  eventually God softened their hearts so that they invited me back into their lives.  He softened my heart so that for the first time I actually wanted to be there...  Everyone in my family noticed the difference and we didn't even have to say a word.

   

       This year I am spending the Thanksgiving Holiday with my family.  I am really looking forward to it.  This will possibly be the last time that we are all there together as my father's health has been going downhill pretty steadily.  But God's timing is so perfect that it is only by His grace that we are able to have this time together.  I think that it will probably be our happiest Thanksgiving ever.  And for the first time, we will all be thankful for it.  Praise be to God.  Nothing is impossible if it is His will.  It's got to make you wonder...

        Dear Lord, please use this example of how You have worked in my life to give someone hope where maybe they have given up.  I have seen you do the impossible.  Please let my friends know that You are there.  You are real.  And if You want something to happen, it will. Please impress upon them the importance of being in Your word.  Of taking the time to listen for Your direction in their lives.  And give them the confidence to realize it is You, and to do as You have directed.  Please bless my friends as You have blessed me.  Thank You Lord, Thank You...