Thanksgiving JOY

Christmas seems to start earlier every year.  While stores are focused on sales and quick to replace pumpkins with pine trees, people also appear to be yearning for the season a little sooner.  Maybe because Christmas is a favorite holiday of many, but maybe also because people need more joy.

On the road, the hodgepodge of the holidays hits you with each passing mile.  Ghosts, pumpkins, harvest wreaths, inflattable Santas and giant penguins are scattered from house to house.

Thanksgiving, a celebration of gratitude for our blessings, has nearly been replaced by the countdown to the ultimate shopping day.  Families no longer linger over pie and coffee but are out the door and off to the mall, while the dishes soak.

When I was a little girl, the wait for Christmas seemed unending.  Now that I'm older, time passes much more quickly.  One can sit and almost watch it slip away.  No matter how much you will it to slow, there is no stopping the ticking of the clock or ending of another day.

It's already the middle of November.  

The busyness of the holidays are among us and, before you know it, another year will be gone. 

Choosing to pause in gratitude is how I welcome the season.  Focusing on thanksgiving each day keeps me from getting swept up in the chaos that can become christmas.

Recognizing my blessings is the best tradition I can think of to celebrate the birth of my Savior.

Because, to me, Thanksgiving isn't just a day - not even just a month -but something I hope to encompass every day of the year.

Gratitude = JOY 

In the search for the perfect season, slowing down in Thanksgiving might just be the unexpected gift people are looking for - and one that can never be found in the store.

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

Shout for JOY to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

    come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

    It is he who made us, and we are his[a];

    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with Thanksgiving

    and his courts with praise;

    give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Lois and Eunice

Reading 2 Timothy the other day, I stumbled across two names that, in the past, I've probably overlooked.  Sometimes I tend to skip over names, assuming they may be insignificant.  Yet, there are no filler words in the Bible and every name in the book has a purpose.  

It was only one sentence  of scripture but had a profound effect and has stuck with me ever since.  In fact, it took me back to my childhood and replayed a favorite memory of being with my Grandma.

Remembering your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy, clearly recalling your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois, then in your mother Eunice, and that I am convinced is in you also.    2 Tim 1:4-5

My paternal grandparents were my faith foundation.  Grandpa, a Baptist preacher, and Grandma, his devoted wife, both taught me what Christian living was all about.  They were role models and examples of what it meant to love and live for Jesus.  

I remember as a child, going with my Grandpa on the weekend and playing at the church while he prepared for his sermons.  How I miss seeing and hearing him in the pulpit.  It was into his arms that I was hugged, as I came forward and found salvation.  Although that has been thirty some odd years ago, I can still vividly see his smiling face as he welcomed me into the family of God.

The childhood memory that came to me from 2 Timothy though was sitting by Grandma in the evenings, both of us in dusters and nightgowns, smelling of soap and lotion, Bible in her lap.  

As I grew older, she let me either search for scripture, read the devotion guide, or passage for that day.  This simple act taught me how to find books of Bible, not to have a fear in reading aloud, and the importance of being in it daily.  

When it was time for bed, she would go with us to our rooms, kneel on the floor and pray with us before we drifted to sleep.  Above my headboard now is a wooden sign with the words, "Now I lay me..." and reminds me of those childhood prayers.  

Grandma and Me at her surprise 85th party

In this month of gratitude, I chose to honor my Grandmother today for her diligence to instilling faith in my life.  Yesterday's sweet memory of growing up with her Christian influence, made me thankful for the role she played in my beliefs.  Her persistence, prayers and example helped shape the woman I am today.      

As a little girl I would play dress up in her shoes and dream of what I could be. My feet have since outgrown her size, but I know her shoes are too big to ever fill. 
Thinking of her witness and how she has been a role model for our family, makes me realize the eternal responsibility we have for our future generations. May I continue to press on with the foundation she's given me so that our family tree grows in faith with each new branch.  

I'm grateful for the "Lois" in my life and hope to continue in her footsteps as the best "Eunice" I can be.  

#justbreathechallenge  Day 2: Childhood Memory

THANKS-giving comes

We lost Austin eight years ago, Thanksgiving weekend.  As such, November is a bittersweet time, filled with emotions and memories, some of which we'd rather forget.  Instead of focusing on the pain of the season though, we lean hard into the kindness and gratitude that comes with the turning of the calendar.

The year after he passed, I challenged myself to post something I was thankful for every single day of November.  As the days drew closer to the 29th, I questioned whether or not I would be able to post something positive when my heart was still shattered.  Once accomplished, it forever changed me; because it was proof that despite the circumstances life may send your way, there is always, always something to be grateful for.  

Aside from posting gratitude in each day, we also use this month to do Random Acts of Kindness in Austin's memory.  It has grown from doing it only on the 29th, to celebrating kindness all month, to truly having a heart for it all year.  

Noah shared with me a couple weeks ago that the past several times he's stopped into a local fast food joint, someone has paid it forward to him.  And while he admitted he sometimes gets surprised in the moment and forgets to continue the trend in that line, he makes sure to send anonymous kindness in other ways to keep it going.  Or sometimes he starts the movement.  I can't even begin to tell you how that made my heart swell.  

When we began doing RAKs, I was hesitant in including Noah, unsure if it would cause him more pain than good.  Instead, it helped bring healing to us all in a way I could've never imagined and became a family event we actually look forward to.  Helping others, bringing a smile to someone's face in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, is a far better way to spend that anniversary, than reliving the horror of losing our boy.

Austin had such a servant's heart, I can only imagine how happy it would make him to see us doing RAKs in his memory.  This time of year, he would already be asking to stock up on supplies so we could make treats for every person he knew - from mailman, to bus driver, to every school employee he came in contact with.  And the legacy he left behind for his friends is one that helped others.  A Christmas box remains wrapped in our living room, filled with notes from classmates who shared just that - how he made small differences with big impact every single day.

He's been on my mind a lot lately, probably the timing of the year, combined with the constant news of the World Series.  I haven't really watched baseball on tv, since he's been gone, but we have this season.  So many times, sitting on the edge of my seat, I could envision him pacing the floor, enthusiastically yelling, freaking out if we'd changed the channel, and celebrating the win.  How I miss that contagious smile and personality!

Losing a child is daily reality of how fragile life is, how much every day matters - what a gift it is, and hoping they are remembered in some way.  My prayer is that we make him proud this time of year - and always.

Grateful & Kind

Maybe it is because I'm getting older but time seems be passing so quickly lately.  I can sit and almost watch it slip away.  And no matter how much you will it to slow, there is no stopping the ticking of the clock or ending of another day.

It's already the middle of November.  

The busyness of the holidays will be among us and, before you know it, another year gone.  

Pausing to be thankful is how I spend this month.  Not just on Thanksgiving but every day of the month.  I started practicing this the year after losing my son.  It was impossible to imagine the holidays without him so this exercise helped me focus on the good that still remained.  I've continued doing it because truly it's how I try to live every single day.

Gratitude = Joy.  This I have learned.

This November has me standing on my head at times searching for joy.  In what is the most difficult of months for us, we've endured some extra heartache.  Watching those you love suffering is one of the deepest pains, especially when there's nothing you can do to fix it.

In the midst of it, I'm aware that Satan would love nothing more than for this girl to stop.  Cease sharing.  To end the finding of joy.  But that just makes me want to do it more.

Since I was a child, if you told me I couldn't achieve something, it just fueled me to prove you wrong.  Of course, in this case, I know there's a bigger power on my side.  And through Him, I can do all things...most especially find JOY!

Yesterday I hear it was World Kindness Day and then I see devastating news for Paris.  In a much bigger scale, it magnifies that sometimes there is nothing you can do in the chaos and pain, except keep moving forward.  PRAY.

And not stop.

Our annual RAK project is approaching.  I prefer focusing on the day of my son's death with a positive, because how else can you celebrate such an anniversary.  Instead of dwelling on something we can't change, we remember our son and the way he lived his life - helping others.  Doing random acts of kindness is a small way to keep his sweet spirit with us on the day we miss him most.

November 29, if you'd like to join us.  Although I encourage you to do a RAK whenever it feels right, whether in November, December - or even July!

Here are some of my favorite RAK moments from the past, if you'd like to read...

Hidden Shopping Spree

Free Drinks

Love in a Shoebox

Kindness Collected

Backpacks

Last year was the first year we received messages after our reverse shopping spree.  

Six years may have passed but I was having an especially rough weekend remembering.

These came at just the needed moments.  Hugs from above...

If you do a RAK in memory of Austin, we love hearing about them.  

Just add to the comments below.