But anyway, here is my list of things I'm thankful for:
I'm thankful for the opportunity to finish school and get my teaching degree in a matter of months from now... even though I'm not always thrilled with the irritations (aka those really boring textbook note-taking assignments) and the minor potholes (aka "What do you mean I have to take Freshman Intro to Literature after all? The advising department told me that that was covered by my AA degree...") along the way.
In that vein, right now I'm thankful for my Science Methods textbook, which has provided me with almost immeasurable inspiration tonight... inspiration to clean the kitchen, inspiration to write in my blog, inspiration to hunt down and kill all of the new black mold colonies in all of the windows of the entire apartment, inspiration to do anything but read the 4 chapters that are due this week ^_^
I'm also thankful that MacBooks are actually pretty durable little guys... and that I realized that the back of the screen was a little too close to the cinnamon spice scented candles before it melted all the way through the shell o_O
I'm thankful for all of the friends I've made in my cohort at school over the past year and a half, and for the close-knit family that we've become. For the first time I can remember, I've finally found a school where I actually belong, and where I feel at home and wanted.
I'm thankful for Facebook, because it actually does help me to stay connected with people (something I'm really, really not good at in real-life)... and it helps me to keep on top of my hectic assignment calendar (read as "Hey, BTW, does anyone know which chapters we were supposed to read for class tomorrow?")
I'm thankful for my husband and my 3 kids, who keep me on my toes and remind me that I really don't have it all figured out yet :-) Humility is a wonderful thing... or so they keep telling me ^_^
I'm also thankful for my extended family, because they've taught me everything I know about being me. I'm convinced that family is God's way of teaching us to love like He does... You see, with friends, if they tick you off or let you down, you always have the choice of just walking away. With family, though, you're kind of stuck with them... no matter how screwed up they are or how badly they've blown it, they're still your family, and like them or not, you still love them. Of course, that whole part about being screwed up and blowing it applies just as much to you as to them... no matter what we've done or how much they might complain about us on Facebook, they still love us and welcome us back home each holiday.
Our family sees us at our most unlovely... when we're babies who've just pooped all over our best holiday dress, when we're five years old and throwing a tantrum because somebody had the audacity to put both green beans AND sweet potatoes on our plate-- and they're TOUCHING!!!!!--, when we're thirteen and refusing to come out of our rooms because we have to sit at the kids' table AGAIN... and on and on into the totally separate issues of adulthood. Yet in spite of all our issues, our family is still our family, and they still love us-- even when they may not like us very much at the moment. (Remind me to talk about the ginormous difference between "like" and "love" some other time... ^_^)
OK, so you may be saying, "Well, maybe in YOUR family... mine hasn't spoken to each other in years, and not just because of all the restraining orders and conditions of parole..." Still, hear me out... Even if your family says they hate you, or you hate them, or your parents do all their communicating through you, or if your family has disowned people, guess what? You still think about those people and have never forgotten them. Why? Because they're family, and somewhere, buried underneath all the drama and scar tissue, there will always be love there.
See, this is why I say that family is how God teaches us what His love is really like... We came from Him, because He made us. He loves us when we're at our crappiest, and when we've done everything possible-- whether we meant to or not-- to make Him give up on us. Even if we deny our relationship to Him and deny that He even exists, He still shows His love for us by giving us what we need to live and by putting a desire in our hearts to be loved by somebody. When we realize this and love Him back, things are wonderful... maybe not in the circumstances, but in our ability to deal with those circumstances. When we turn our backs on Him, things get messy... and then a lot of the time we go crying out to Him like teenagers calling their parents to bail them out of jail at 3AM ^_^ And then, even if He doesn't come and bail us out right away, we know He's there working on it and that He cares about us. So, it really isn't that big of a stretch to say that family is a lot like God after all :-)
Which leads to the biggest thing that I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving... I'm thankful to God for loving me and saving me when I was at my worst, for knowing how little I deserved His love and for still sending Jesus to die for me so that I could actually know Him as His Child and not just as a pawn in this world of His. I'm thankful for the life that He has given me... I only hope I can remember to be thankful more often than just once a year :-/
So, anyway, true to form, here's a musical interlude that kind of fits the theme and my mood... The song is "Faith My Eyes" from Caedmon's Call's album 40 Acres.
