Peace, Love and Thanks

I'm a little late on the "Thanksgiving" post, but better late than never, I say. Actually, I really never say that because I don't know that I think that is true in many cases. But in this case, I do, so I will say it. Better late than never!

I got 2 free credits for audiobooks recently on audible.com (if you want 2 free credits, which usually equals 2 free book downloads, go to audible.com/hulu, create an account, redeem your credits and BE SURE to cancel your account before a month is up! Or keep your account and pay to get books every month). I had been hearing some buzz about a book The Help so I thought I would give it a listen. There should be more than a BUZZ about this book! I loved every drop of it - and I was a little hesitant to listen to it versus read it, but the readers were wonderful! I laughed out loud multiple times, at the risk of looking crazy at work while I typed reports.

Aside from the book being completely fabulous, it really got me thinking around Thanksgiving. I am so very grateful that I don't live in the middle of the civil rights uproar. I grew up in the South and was raised by parents who taught me that how people look, the money they make, the things they have, don't change that their needs are the same as mine. Listening to the character Skeeter discover and embrace this throughout the book made me step back and put myself in her shoes. Would I have been so willing to see people as people and not as black or white? Maybe I would have, I'm a little bit of a push-over for people anyway. But would I have risked friends and popularity and comfort to reach out to people and stand up for them in a way that they could not do legally? Oooh, one can only hope. Today, I am fortunate because in many ways, I don't have to be faced with that choice. In law, everyone gets that same treatment. I'm not naive enough to believe that this is always true in practice because there are still people passing on untrue messages to their children and loved ones, but I'm glad that things have changed in a lot of ways. And I'm even more glad that my parents drafted me into the change!

This week, Thomas and I finally made it back to our Wednesday night Bible Study. Mike, our Bible study guy, talked about Luke 17:11-17. Within the last month, both our Senior Pastor and an Associate Pastor had given sermons on this passage and (I am sad to admit) I really didn't remember that much about the message. I mean, I remembered the story, but I didn't remember what they were trying to get me to take away from it. But then Wednesday night, here comes ol' Luke 17 again and I was thinking "Man, you guys are really running this one into the ground." Turns out, I think maybe someone, let's say God, was trying to get a message across to me from Luke... and Wednesday I got it! I'll try to make a long story short, but basically Jesus sends these 10 lepers that he passes in the street to a priest and when they get there they are healed. And then one comes back to Jesus and says "Thank you!"
So we talked about how sometimes being thankful just isn't enough, but being a returner of thanks and expressing gratitude to those who have impacted our lives matters. It drives me crazy when I feel like I'm giving my all to help people out or make things better, and nobody seems to notice or care. It makes me want to stop giving and stop caring. Then I thought about how often I probably make other people feel this way because I'm too lazy, too busy and too self-centered to stop and say thanks.

Mike asked us each to write down 3 people that we need to say Thank You to. I sat blank for several minutes. It wasn't that I didn't have anyone to write down - I had TOO MANY people. How could I narrow it down to only 3?

You have to look at your life and know that it has been good when you realize there are so many people to thank that you don't even know where to start. That can only mean that so many good things and good people have happened to you, that you can't count them, can't organize them and can't be done being thankful. As Mike pointed out, when you're taking time to think about the people yore thankful for and the things they've done to make you thankful, it's hard not to feel happy. Not to mention, that someone you're thanking might need that encouraging word in their life. The week before Thanksgiving, Thomas and I started taking the last few minutes before we went to sleep to say a thing or two we were thankful for that day - not just the generic stuff, you know, family, friends, etc. Those things aren't bad to say and I am very thankful for them, but we wanted to recognize people and activities in each specific day that made us thankful. It really did end any kind of day with a "warm fuzzy" if you will. So after Wednesday, I decided we will just keep doing that every night, saying something in our day that made us thankful. Now, I've just got to figure out a better way to start recognizing those "thankful" moments in the moment and saying to the person in front of me, "Thank you. You just made me smile today and I needed that" or "Thank you. You just made me remember why I work" or whatever little thing it is.

I challenge you ... yep, you, the one reading this, to do 2 things.
1) Read The Help. It is so very good. There's no way you won't be able to laugh at Minnie! Then be thankful for the people in your life that aren't like you!
2) Make a list of 3 people you need to say thank you to ... then do it! Write them a note, call them, have lunch with them and say thank you for (insert here).

Peace, Love and THANKS!