At Rest

Happy Thanksgiving! I love this time of year. I love how the temperatures get crisp, how beautiful the first snowfall can be, and how I am reminded of the many blessings God has given to me!

I lack nothing...

God has given me everything that I have ever needed...

What an AWESOME realization.

I spent Thanskgiving with David's family this year. It was my first Thanksgiving without my family and I will be honest and say that it was strange, perhaps even a little depressing at first.

I am very traditional when it comes to holidays. I set my expectations for Thanksgiving around going to church, having my family close and the food! Boy do I love the yummy food... turkey, mashed potatoes, the green bean casserole my mom likes to make, bread rolls with butter, gravy, and pumpkin pie. It was quite interesting to realize that my way of celebrating Thanksgiving is not the only way. David and I did go to church this Thanksgiving, but we went without his family; and we did make a yummy turkey from which I will be eating the leftovers for months. The odd thing to me was eating roast beef with carrots and corn and drinking red wine. I like roast beef and I definitely do like a nice glass of wine every now and then. However, I thought my Thanksgiving was going to be ruined by welcoming a new tradition and it turned out to be a delightful day--decorating the Christmas tree, trying to cook a frozen turkey (I thought boys knew that you were supposed to set a turkey out to thaw), playing Yahtzee, and watching TV with David, one of his sisters and his mom. I came to realize that I was being a brat and that realization made me thankful. How can you change if you don't realize when you are being a brat?

We should all think about that more often.

Life is precious.

My mom called yesterday and left a voice mail saying that she had bad news. I called her back immediately, thinking that my golden retriever and best friend of fourteen years had hit the dust. Not so...although my dad has his hole dug and it is the bad news that I am waiting for almost every day.

No, this news was unexpected. A life-long friend of mine, Sheri, was visiting her family yesterday and on her way to go shopping in Sioux City with her mom and daughter. You know, the kind of shopping trip my mom and I make at least four times a year except this one was different. Jesus decided to take Sheri home when the vehicle she was driving collided with a truck.

You never expect a twenty-six-year-old friend to die.

Never.

I still don't believe it.

But I know that one day soon I will because the truth is that I will never see Sheri again this side of heaven. Neither will her husband of two years, and daughter who is only one.

Death sucks.

It doesn't make sense why God would take a young mother home. I remember the last time I saw her, how happy she was just to be a mom. Usually when I look at my married friends and married friends with kids I feel sorry for them. I feel sorry for them because I so love being single and all of the fun things I get to do during the season of life. I feel like a lot of my friends just jumped right into marriage and having babies. But if I knew that I was going to die without getting married and having kids, I would feel like I hadn't really lived life.

Sheri lived a good life. She had a family who loved her. And I know that they will never be the same.

Sheri is at rest and I know that God always tries to use situations such as these to get me to wake up. Why do I worry about things like not having pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner? It really puts a twist on things.

God sheds perspective into my life.

Life is not a dress rehearsal.

It isn't about me.

It is about being a DISCIPLE. I feel encouraged to grow closer in my walk with Christ. Honestly, it has been a really long time since I have felt that way.

God isn't finished with me yet.