Thanksgiving

I am really losing a grip on my emotional life. Yesterday I was out picking up a ham to go with our turkey today. As I stood in line and took in all that was bustling about me I got choked up. In the Honeybaked Ham store. Over buying a ham. What is happening to me?

I think it was the excitement brimming in everyone over the arrival of the holidays, the time with family and friends and the realization that I am now a full-fledged Mama. Apparently a crazy pregnancy, extensive complications, months of sleep deprivation, thousands of diapers...those aren't the things that make you a real Mama in my heart's book. No, it is getting out my silver and china, setting my tables, roasting a turkey and hosting those I love most dearly in my home that has made me feel like a real, grown-up Mama.

This is only the second time I have hosted our family's Thanksgiving meal. The first time was 4 years ago and we took the opportunity to announce our pregnancy. (We did not yet know it was triplets...just that we were finally pregnant.)

This Thanksgiving is worlds apart from our last hosting. I am up before 6am watching a turkey, after spending several hours awake with P who has a hacking cough and a 101 degree fever and K who is struggling with a very painful ear infection. My children are no longer a "hope" they are a reality. A reality that makes me laugh a lot, cry a fair bit, sleep little and pray more from a place of true need than I ever did before.

My health is not just an arbitrary item on a generic list of things to be thankful for. I am a 33 year old woman on cardiac and blood pressure medication because I had a near miss. My annoying sore throat this morning is a small reminder to be grateful for the life and the health I was once precariously close to losing.

My extended family is high atop my list, because being a mother has taught be a great deal about the love and sacrifice of others involved in getting my husband and me to this place in our adult lives.

My husband? He is a gift straight from Heaven. Completely, totally, absolutely more than I could have ever asked for or imagined.

My list goes on and on, as I am sure yours does. I hope today amidst the busy-ness of preparation, you'll find time to worship the Giver...not just the gifts. May your meal, your heart, your conversation be full of worship and gratefulness to the Creator, our Provider, our Savior. Prepare and enjoy your feast with Him in mind.

Our Thanksgiving tradition is to have each guest read a verse about thankfulness and tell what they are grateful for. In the event any of you would like to do the same, here are some of this year's selections.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Psalm 106:1

When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers… to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Deuteronomy 6:10-12

Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. Psalm 95:2-6

Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. Psalm 100:4-5

They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. Psalm 145:7

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name. I Chronicles 29:11-13

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. Psalm 9:1

The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!” Psalm 50:23

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,to sing praises to your name, O Most High; Psalm 92:1

Happy Thanksgiving!