One of our family traditions that I have come to love about the Thanksgiving holiday is the time that we take to genuinely reflect on all that we have to be thankful for. Each guest at the Thanksgiving table has 3 pieces of candy corn on their plate. As we move around the table, each guest shares three things that they are thankful, one per piece of candy corn. As young children, my siblings, cousins and I usually had fairly similar reflections - thankful for family, for God and for the opportunity to go to school or something along those lines. I remember one year when my brother Mike sat down at the dinner table, a third grader at the time, dressed up as an American Indian with a full feather-filled headdress. He had been studying American Indians in school and was particularly excited for Thanksgiving because of it. He shared with us that he was thankful for God, for family, and "for Squanto who became friends with the pilgrims so that we could have this yummy Thanksgiving dinner, except for mashed potatoes that make me throw up." My family will be gathering together today to celebrate Thanksgiving, starting with their candy corn reflections. We'll be celebrating here in Peru, so I thought I'd post my three candy corn reflections here instead:
- Living in the city where we fell in love, surrounded by reminders of those blissful summer months, I am continually grateful for Tony and the blessing he is in my life as my husband, counselor and best friend.
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Living thousands of miles away has also given me new understanding of the depth of gratitude that I have for my family. I miss them dearly every day and am thankful for the ways they love us so well from a distance.
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Our work with orphaned and abandoned children, each with traumatic backgrounds, makes me grateful each day for the redemptive work of Christ and the hope for the future that each of us have in him.
1 comment:
What a neat tradition! Mine would be:
1. Tommy's smile with 4 little teeth right now
2. My complexity--I know this sounds odd, but I've spent a lot of the year wishing I could just be content at home in the simplicity of caring for a baby and cleaning house. This isn't me, and I'm thankful!
3. David's gentleness. This used to really annoy me, but now he can melt away anger with this quality.
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