Happy Thanksgiving! For some of us…for the rest who are experiencing a not so Happy Thanksgiving, I hope these words encourage you. I’ve been there before. Everyone is super excited about a family holiday filled with festivities and fun family pictures. It’s hard to watch, but also hard not to. I’ve had those feelings of, “what if’s and if only’s”. Loss of any kind at thanksgiving is really hard to be thankful for. It’s as if the world is moving and you are standing still. The hardest part, is remembering the Thanksgivings before when they were the post card of holidays. There is a sense of grief that won’t leave the heart, but it makes us feel better as we to stuff our bellies full of leftovers from the night before. If I just pretend it’s turkey, it will be, right?

But, as hard as the Holidays can be sometimes, I sit back and remind myself of the world around me. Yes, there are people sitting around an ornate table setting with their name on a place card with food as far as the eye can see, but there are also those living on the streets holding up signs for whatever food we might give to them. There are families who don’t have power and are sitting around candles, not as decoration, but as the only light they have. Story after story can be told of those with far worse situations on Thanksgiving day and this gives me perspective. I might feel the things lacking in my life today, but I am choosing to look at the things lacking in other people’s life more. I am choosing to be thankful for the hard season I may or may not be in and know it is just that…a season. I may feel there is no end to the hard, but I am trusting in the promises in the one that made me.

If today you are gathered around a table with the most precious people in your life like I am, savor it…soak up the richness and goodness the Lord has made. If you are the ones who are grieving, abused, abandoned, forgotten, misplaced, or praying for a life you can only imagine, I am praying with you today. Let us all be thankful for the blessings, praying for other’s losses, and serving the unfortunate.

Thankful for each of you and the one who created you!

Holley