I "claim" Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I remember the days when our kids were little and we tried to get to Angus' family and mine since they both live in the same city. It was awful. We were stuffed til we ached and traveling and tired and miserable. We didn't enjoy it or feel grateful. We felt obligated. We did it because we love our families and are grateful for them but we didn't do them or Thanksgiving or God justice by trying to to it all. Isn't that the way it is so often in life?

I have told my 4 sons that I wish to claim Thanksgiving as ours even if it means we will have to give up having them at Christmas. I know that as they marry and move on their return home for holidays will become a time of decisions. I hope they will choose to be with us on Thanksgiving but I will not want them to try to do it all. I'd rather they love us and God and recognize all they've been given no matter where they are or what they are doing.

I want them to know that our focus for Thanksgiving is to be grateful to God for all that he has given every single day. My kids are a huge part of what makes me so thankful for life, but there is so much more.

This morning I read Keith Brenton's Thanksliving weblog and he says it better than I:

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It isn't the food. It isn't the football games. It isn't even the gathering of family (when we can). There's just something inside that wants Thanksgiving to be a year-round, 24/7 thing. I want it to be an ongoing holiday. A moveable feast of gratitude. A lifestyle.

Thanksliving.


Amen, Keith. Amen.