Thankful Thursday

 

 

 

I'm thankful each new day is a beginning, we can learn from our mistakes and know God loves us anyway!!! So...don't look back, you're not going that way!

 

 

                                           

 
 










 

The Butterfly Effect

be kind...

Let's be thankful we live in a world where little things make a difference--today be that difference for someone else!

Baby it's cold outside!

I went out yesterday afternoon with my daughter to run some errands and it ended up taking longer than I'd expected. Typical, right? When we left the sun was still out and when we came home it had gone down. set It was a chilly day but even more so with the absence of the sunlight. As we left the last store, shivering through the parking lot on the way back to the car I was more anxious than ever to return to my warm and inviting home. We passed someone with their head bent under the hood of a car, dealing with some kind of engine trouble, I was sympathetic but definitely glad it wasn't us this time. When I pulled into my own driveway fifteen minutes later it was with a sigh of relief I went inside. 

I'm especially thankful today for the blessing of heat and a comfortable house to live in--something I often take for granted. A small and simple thing? But not for those who don't have it. 

The Perfect Gift

Not all Christmas gifts come wrapped in beautiful packages under the tree...

It's just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree at this time of the year for the past 10 years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas. Oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it. You know, the overspending, the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma, the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended. Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner city church.

These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes.

As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without head gear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously couldn't afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn't acknowledge defeat.

Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one of them could have won," he said. "They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them." Mike loved kids-all kids. He understood kids in competitive situations, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That's when the idea for his present came.

That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me.

His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition - one year sending a group of mentally challenged youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas - on and on...

The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.

As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. Still, the story doesn't end there.

You see, we lost Mike last year due to cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. Yet Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more. Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad.

The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further, with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation, watching as their fathers take down their envelopes.

Mike's spirit, like the spirit of Christmas, will always be with us.

-author unknown

 I've kind of had a rough week, dealing with challenges and it has been harder than normal to keep a positive attitude. When I came across the following quote it was a great reminder.

"The things you take for granted, someone else is praying for."

I took an honest look at myself, my surroundings and all blessings in my life, and was immediately humbled. Life is not perfect, but life is good!