Thanksgiving

True confessions here, I am not a huge holiday person.

I am not a Scrooge, I hope.  It is more that I try to have the spirit of the holidays all year long. I mean, we shouldn't JUST be thankful at Thanksgiving, and we shouldn't JUST think about Jesus' birth at Christmas time or His death and resurrection for our sakes at Easter!

All that is true, but it is ALSO true that God very definitely blessed and even created holidays and celebrations for His people. There are very detailed instructions in the Old Testament about the Feasts that the Israelites celebrated to remember the Passover and the harvest and things like that.

So there is very definite place for holidays and contemplating the blessings of God.

And Thanksgiving, while it isn't an overtly Christian holiday, certainly shines a light on an important mental exercise...being full of thanksgiving and gratitude.

So today I thought about being grateful.  It didn't come entirely naturally...

I had a well child checkup for our 1 year old daughter, but yesterday it became clear that Lydia had an eye problem so I brought her in as well.

Lydia has a raging case of pink eye.

Sarah needed some bloodwork to check for lead levels so after the appointments, I took her to get that taken care of.  She didn't appreciate it very much, but didn't wail for long.

Then we went off to Kroger to fill an antibiotic prescription for Lydia.  Turned out that the pharmacy didn't have the medication we needed. Sigh.  Her eye is BAD and it is very contagious so we needed it.

I got home at 11 a.m. to find Kevin had just gotten up. He is not feeling well.  I called the doctor and they called in the prescription.  I listened to the messages on the answering machine and discovered that I had left a credit card at the doctor's office.  Sigh.

So, no huge biggie, but this morning just didn't go that well.  I felt stymied in trying to do things efficiently, and I'm all about efficiency.  I was sorry that Kevin didn't feel well as he's had a cold off and on for several weeks and is tired of it!

But then I realized how much I have to be thankful for.

I have a car so I can take my kids to the doctor.

We have insurance so I can take the kids to the doctor.

The credit card is in a safe place though it isn't in the place I want it to be.

We have pharmacies on every corner so I can get medication for my children.

My husband is generally healthy.  A cold is tiresome, but a cold is just a cold.  There are people battling far more serious health issues.

Our children are all quite healthy too.  Pink eye is a pain (figuratively and literally) but in the grand scheme of things, it is small.

All these are minor things compared to the joys of salvation and the joys of a strong marriage.  But its the little things that sometimes wear me down, and it is good to think about the things I am thankful about in the midst of life's little irritations.