Sunday, May 15, 2011

Weekend Watch {forgetting to be thankful}

I've started following Laura Parker on Twitter.  She's a missionary living with her family in Thailand and I just really enjoy how real she is.  I like to think we'd be friends if we ever met in real life.

So she's got her Weekend Watch going on where she posts a video and then encourages you to do the same.  I have a video.  I have an answer, or at least thoughts, to her question.  I'm in!

After sharing that her family has been in Thailand for a year now and no one has gotten sick from the less-than-sanitary food that they get from the local market, Laura asks this question:

Dropped the ball on being thankful for something lately?

Um, yes.

I am thankful that I have four beautiful, healthy children who have all been blessed with unique personalities and talents.  In the whirlwind of activities this month it's hard not to get caught up in it all and foget to enjoy it.  Forget to be thankful that they are able to participate in them. 

I am thankful that I had 19 wonderful years with my own Mom who 18 years ago today passed away from ovarian cancer.  Thankful that she loved me so incredibly much and I never doubted that.  Thankful that she was able to care for me.  Remembering all my little friends in Haiti, many of whom have living parents who had to give them away because they couldn't provide the most basic needs.  My mom didn't want to leave me and my siblings anymore than those mom's wanted to give their children away but they had no choice.  As odd as it sounds, I'm thankful to know what it's like to not have my mom with me.  If only in some small way to identify with the orphans that God has put on my heart.

I'm thankful for this busy season at work.  Because it means I have work to do.  Our house still hasn't sold and everything seems to be so expensive but I love what I do and apparently others do too because they keep hiring me.  I get bogged down trying to figure out how on earth I'll ever get caught up when what I really should be doing is being thankful that at least I'm bogged down!

So yep.  I'm thankful.

....for the constant whirlwind of activities

...for the aching in my heart at the loss of my mom

...for the slight panic that sets in when I see how long my to-do list is

I leave you with this.  One of the songs my sweet Teagan sang at her voice recital Friday night.  It was just a few years ago that she tried to sing a song for her Daddy in front of our family and another couple on his birthday.  She got through the first line before she burst into tears from nerves.  She's come a LONG way as you can tell.  Friday night was scary, and she messed up several lines of the song but she did it.  And for that...I'm thankful.


1 comment:

  1. YEAH, Teagan!!!! So glad to have "met" you via the internet world. Thanks for playing along and for posting. Loved reading your list of thankful-things. It's so easy to forget, isn't it?

    Love from here,
    Laura

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