Tag: thanksgiving (Page 1 of 3)

A Story of Thanksgiving and When the Holy Spirit Did a Happy Dance

November 19, 2022 /

A year ago, just before Easter, I had gathered a bunch of young moms from our church in California. I wanted to encourage them and asked them to share “Yay God” stories from the past year.

We talked about the blessing of technology during Covid to keep isolated moms with littles connected as they tried to persevere and follow Jesus during a difficult time.

One of the special stories that came up was about a mom named Brooke, married with 3 little kids, who had moved to Switzerland with her husband at the beginning of Covid. She hadn’t found fellowship and Zooming with our group in the states was her lifeline.

Since we lived and ministered in Switzerland for a short while, I asked the group where Brooke had moved.

“Oh, it’s a really tiny town in the Alps”, they responded.

I asked, “Which one? Would you recognize the name?”

I held my breath. “Is it Wengen?”

“YES!” they exclaimed in chorus. “How did you know??!”

I can’t be sure, this is what happened, but I pictured God just laughing with delight as His Holy Spirit danced around my patio where we were gathered.

Because I have a close friend, Jane, who just “happens” to live in Wengen with her husband, and they not only are Jesus followers, they also have the gift of hospitality out the wazoo.

We keep in touch through WhatsApp and I quickly texted her Brooke’s name and information. A few days later my heart soared when Jane sent pictures of Brooke’s family in Jane’s chalet half way around the world, decorating Easter eggs.

This week I got another text from Jane who has invited Brooke and her family to Thanksgiving dinner. I’m looking forward to getting a picture!

Has this solved all of Brook’s family needs for a faith community? No! But I pray that this mama I’ve never met feels seen and I’m grateful for my friend Jane, who welcomes holy interruptions like this.

May Brooke be able to say like Hagar:

“You’re the God who sees me!
“Yes! He saw me; and then I saw him!”

Genesis 16:13 msg

When you feel isolated or discouraged, remember you serve a God who sees you and cares about everything that concerns you.

And if you sense a little nudge from the Holy Spirit, act on it! You may be part of God’s loving reach around the world.

Soul Food, Thanksgiving, and Black Friday

November 21, 2019 /

Most Fridays I try to post some images, resources, and thoughts around a relevant topic. I call it “Soul food”, but it may include things that feed our heart, mind, and body, as well as soul. Whatever is beautiful, funny, true, helpful…I try to make it all things life-giving.

This week in the U.S. we’re looking forward to Thanksgiving, and either looking forward to, or dreading Black Friday, so here are a few resources.

via GIPHY

Even the healthiest families can encounter challenges when everyone is thrown together. If you want a little help, check out this post on 5 Questions to Save Your Holidays from Family Drama

I saw this idea at a Starbucks in California, and had been meaning to copy it. Then Tsh Oxenreider posted it beautifully on Instagram!

She bought an extra pumpkin for November and every day her family tries to write something they’re thankful for on it. Fun Thanksgiving centerpiece too!

There are some great suggestions here for winning at Thanksgiving (except the suggestion to rent stuff – I can’t see doing that, but maybe it’s just me).

In past years I’ve made the commitment to not go into malls after Thanksgiving, but these days that’s not a challenge. Online shopping makes for a kinder, gentler holiday season and God bless us, everyone. Still, there is the random Target and grocery run, so I thought some of the following might help us to laugh at ourselves a little.

Can you find yourself? (I’m a 7)
This is just so true I can’t even stand it!

via GIPHY

I’m grateful for each of you! Happy Thanksgiving!

Your turn! What are some fun Thanksgiving hacks, meaningful practices, or soulful insights you can share with us in the comments?

If you receive this in an email, just click on the title and then scroll down on the post to leave a comment. If it’s your first time, it will not appear right away, but don’t worry! It will soon!

As always, I’d love to have you join me over on Instagram! It’s my favorite place for small doses of joy and inspiration!

Soul Food with a Helping of Gratitude

October 31, 2019 /

It’s November! And with it comes Thanksgiving – the holiday many people say is their favorite because it’s simple. Family, football, a festive feast day, and no frenetic search for the perfect gifts.

No, it’s not great for everyone, I know. I don’t want to diminish the pain of those who are going through this holiday for the first time with someone missing from their table, or are in the midst of circumstances that are very difficult. Be gentle with yourself. Tell your people what you need. Maybe go back and read this post on a “sacrifice of praise” from a few years ago.

Some of us might need a little perspective shift. You may want to check out this post on what Thanksgiving looks like from where someone else is sitting.

If you want some prompts to help you keep a focus on gratitude this month, here you go!

  1. Write a note to someone you’re grateful for.
  2. Host a Friendsgiving gathering.
  3. Post a picture of one place you’re grateful for.
  4. Post a verse or quote on gratitude that is meaningful to you.
  5. Bake goodies and deliver as a thank you to people who don’t usually get recognized – like the janitor at your kids’ school.
  6. Give a shout out to a favorite Instagram feed and why you appreciate it. Share one of their pictures.
  7. What’s a favorite comfort food you’re thankful for? Make and invite someone to share.
  8. Share a Thanksgiving story with pictures.
  9. What helps create a comforting atmosphere that you’re grateful for?
  10. Post a picture of family members you’re grateful for.

I’ll be posting my responses to these on Instagram and I’d LOVE to see you do it too! Just use the hashtag #everydaygraces (Did you know you can follow hashtags? You can, and I will be following!)

You guys who know me, know that one of the things I LOVE is meaningful questions around the table! Here’s a fun resource I like that you might consider for Thanksgiving dinner! It’s called “Untie Your Story” – questions on cloth you cut apart and tie around the napkins at your table.

Some fun Instagram posts for the day after Halloween…

Gotta love Letterfolk!

Happy Weekending friends!

The Third Way of Prayer

March 11, 2018 /

Seems like lately everyone around me has been experiencing loss, deep pain, or unexpected trauma.  As I walk along a wooded path my shoulders feel heavy. My spirit matches the damp gray afternoon and I dodge icy patches and sooty piles of snow. My prayers are more like a litany of lament, and it’s appropriate. There is a time for that. Absolutely. You may be lamenting, and God welcomes that.

There is also time for thanksgiving, for focusing not on what has been lost, but on all that we have to be grateful for…a kind of perspective corrective. We list one thousand gifts in a journal. We pay attention to our blessings.  We try to “think lovely thoughts”. Thanksgiving is always right and good.

But there’s a third way of praying  that has been most important to me in this heavy season.

Continue reading

What Does a “Sacrifice of Praise” Look Like on Thanksgiving?

November 23, 2017 /

It’s Thanksgiving morning and I have much to be grateful for. We are surrounded by extended family and daughter Katy from D.C. showed up to surprise us yesterday.

But part of a verse has been running through my head this Thanksgiving week.

“offer a sacrifice of praise”

Like I’m watching an unsteady toddler, tipsy and bumping an ottoman then lurching into a chair, I feel like I want to catch this verse and make it safer.

Last night as we sang worship hymns I thought of friends and family for whom praise may be difficult. If I read this verse in other circumstances I would be decidedly ticked off at God.

I think of…

Friends in a rocky marriage

Those mourning loss of loved ones

A dear one with ALS

I would be like, “SACRIFICE?? MORE SACRIFICE??”

How are they praising God this Thanksgiving? I don’t believe “a sacrifice of praise” means inauthenticity. So what is the genuine response of “a sacrifice of praise”

Although “fake it til you make it” doesn’t seem Jesus-y, it does seem there’s a call to move past our gut emotional response to circumstances, and instead choose the discipline of “in spite of”.

  • In spite of these circumstances I praise God because I can look forward to eternity with Him. (it is through Jesus we can do this)
  • In spite of these circumstances I praise God for His past faithfulness.
  • In spite of these circumstances I praise God for His character daily – He will never leave me. He redeems my sin. He loves me no matter what.

Here’s the thing, though… It’s not just my friends in challenging situations who may struggle with a “sacrifice of praise.” Maybe it’s you or me, in a season when things are pretty hunky dory.

Here’s the Message paraphrase:

Make sure you don’t take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of “sacrifice”—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.

Hebrews 13:16 MSG

One definition of sacrifice is: an act of offering to a deity something precious.

One thing that is precious to us is our sense of self-sufficiency, our autonomy. It’s the root of our sin, right? Like the lurching toddler above, we want to declare “I do it myself!”

Especially when things are going well, for some of us, “a sacrifice of praise” may be laying aside our pride and admitting “All that I am and all that I have come from You Lord. I praise You because You alone are worthy.” 

In the service last night we sang the hymn that has become our family’s. I pictured many friends and family as I sang the last stanza:

Pardon for sin, and a peace that endureth, Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine with ten-thousand beside!

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed thy had hath provided –

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Three Questions to Prep You for a Dysfunctional Family Gathering

November 17, 2017 /

John likes to say he grew up in the Simpson family and I grew up in the Cleaver family.  For those of you born before this century that’s the Leave-it-to-Beaver-all-american-solve-the-oh-so-dramatic-problem-of-someone-telling-a-white-lie-in-30-minutes-and-live-happily-ever-after-TV-family-of-the-1960’s.DSC00619

I share that only because we’re coming up on Thanksgiving and Christmas and every holiday that involves families gathering together.

Some of us have dreams that look like this:

 

But reality can often look like this:

And as wonderful as my family is, and as much as I’d like to think they’re perfect, I’m resigned to face the truth that there is no such thing as a fully functional family.  We live in a broken world and we’re a broken people – dysfunctional in some way, every one of us.

It’s a little comforting to know we have some not-so-stellar company in Bible families.

  • Lot got drunk and slept with his daughter.
  • Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery.
  • David refused to deal with his son, Absolom’s sin.
  • Abraham slept with his wife’s servant.

Not exactly “Minnesota nice.”

“How is this encouraging?” you say!

Well, in spite of their sin, God forgave, redeemed and used them.  There is hope for all of us.

For those looking forward to Norman Rockwell gatherings this week, praise God.  But for those who are going into the crazy zone that is your family, what are some things you can do to prepare?

Think of the person or people you will see who brings out the worst in you. The person who tries your patience, or shames you, or prompts you to act like your two-year-old self.

Consider these insights from Henry Cloud:

“You can’t control outcomes. You can only control your behavior. Focus on that and you will get better outcomes.” 

  • What is it in you that needs to change?  What can you control?

“No one can manipulate you unless you need something from them….figure out what you need and you will discover the source of their power.”

  • What are you looking for from someone else that only God can perfectly give you?  Approval?  Forgiveness?  Love?
  • What can you authentically affirm in each of your family members?  A kind word can diffuse a lot of tension.

Most importantly, though, maybe prepare by praying.  Hands open.

Lord, I bow before You, marred, and messed up, just like the rest of my family.  Help me to see myself and Yourself more clearly.  Give me grace to cover the offenses of others.  Give me humility to ask forgiveness where I have offended.  Give me courage to speak the truth and pursue healthy boundaries.

So as you anticipate being with family sometime during the holidays, is it with excitement or  a knot in your stomach?  Are you going in prepared and prayed up?

The Soundtrack of Your Life

November 28, 2014 /

If you know our family at all you know that “Great is Thy Faithfulness” is the sound track of our life together.  We have sung it at every marking moment – at our wedding, at the dedication of our kids, when we have moved, and recently at the 25th anniversary of our time serving at the church in Minneapolis. We were tempted to go a tad overboard and sing it when the Bears won the Super Bowl in ’86.  Clearly it’s a thing.

We have sung this hymn with tears of joy during good times and we have sung it through tears of desperation, declaring it as a reality when it was hard to feel the truth of the words.  But it expresses the truths of Scripture and that’s where we’ve chosen to stand.

This week we’ve been down in the suburbs of Chicago, celebrating Thanksgiving with family (a delightful, large extended family!).  Wednesday night we went to a worship service and again we sang the words we love so much – Great is Thy Faithfulness.

After we sat down, a remarkable father of 5 shared about his faith journey with his wife who was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago.  It was both authentic and God-honoring.  He shared the good – she is currently cancer-free; the bad – their house is built on the rock of faith in Jesus, but right now the windows are broken, the paint is chipping and the shutters hang from the emotional and physical toll of the past two years; and the certain – through it all they have sung the soundtrack of their life together – It is Well With My Soul.   Continue reading

More than Enough

November 21, 2014 /

Monday I wrote about being “enough” and it’s continued to be on my mind this week.  One of the reasons I think people love Thanksgiving is that it’s all about focusing on the “enough” before the holiday season when we’re prone to be stressed about not enough.  Not enough time, sleep, or money, and too much food, noise, and activity.

Maybe one of the reminders we need to carry with us into December is that God is always enough – enough grace for our sin, enough strength for our weakness, enough patience for our striving.

But more than that, maybe we need to be reminded that we are always enough and never too much for God to love.  He’s crazy about us “as is”.  Our picture is in His wallet, our number is on his “favorites” list.  He grieves with us in our despair, and happy dances with us in our joy.

I came across this song that I thought might be encouraging as we head into the weekend.  Enjoy!

Where are you tempted to think you’re not enough?

 

What Does Thanksgiving Look Like From Where Someone Else is Sitting?

November 10, 2014 /

I got home from Zambia Friday afternoon, so happy to be back in my cozy home with a soft bed.

When I left, the trees were painted glorious and Halloween was immanent.

When I returned the trees were sad and bare, the sky gray, and Thanksgiving almost upon us.

The night I got home, I went to my gratitude journal which I hadn’t taken with me. I brought it up to date, adding the following to my list of things I’m thankful for:

  • Real toilets you can sit down on (as opposed to a hole in the ground)
  • Air conditioning (when it’s 97 degrees) and heat (when it’s 29 degrees and snowing, like this morning)
  • Good roads, traffic lights, and traffic laws that are (basically) adhered to (and a car to drive)
  • Dependable electricity that doesn’t capriciously shut off (I heard a story on MPR yesterday on what happens in the developing world when electricity goes off in the middle of an operation in a hospital.  Not good.)
  • WiFi
  • Fresh fruits and vegetables that are safe to eat
  • Clean, unlimited water I can drink safely out of a faucet in my home

These are NOT things that my friends in the slum in Lusaka could list, and yet last Sunday they spent an entire hour in praise and worship for the God who they know who is faithful and sufficient.

photo-21

(You can’t see it, but the line for water from the pump curves around to the right of the picture for a long way.  They could have used signs like at Disney World – 30 minutes from this point…)

You know that verse, “From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.”? Well, it seems like they take it seriously!  Go figure!  And this is not just lip service, but sincere praise with song and dance.

Contrast this with yesterday at my home church where we sang a couple of praise songs, and tossed up a couple of prayers like we were tossing candy off a parade float.

It’s not that we don’t appreciate God, but maybe that’s it.  We appreciate Him without truly acknowledging Him as the source of all that we have and are.  We just live without awareness.

We think of people in the developing world as “disadvantaged”, but maybe it’s really we who need that label.  Our abundance in the United States may be one of the things hindering a more intimate relationship with God.  Wasn’t control and desire for autonomy the root of Adam and Eve’s sin?  The more we have, the more we can live with the illusion of independence, right?  Why would we need God?

This is not to shame anyone, but a desire to live fully alive to God… A reminder to look around at all the things we take for granted and praise God that He has graciously given us all that we have.

What do you overlook that you’re thankful for today?

What to do when School Starts

September 1, 2014 /

As I write this it’s almost Labor day, and I’ve been thinking a lot about you Moms with kids of every age starting back to school – thinking about transitions and All Of The Feelings.

It’s the end of August and I’m “up north”.  This is my view.

IMG_8037

Don’t hate me, but I can breathe deep and enjoy this lake air (and the mocha John just brought me, thank you very much) without being interrupted by an 8 year old who wants to play UNO. or a 12 year old who wants me to take them on a jet-ski, or a toddler who can’t find his Thomas the Tank pez dispenser (and all the drama that comes with).

I love this season of life and the freedom it gives me, don’t get me wrong.  But this – this time of transition from Summer to Fall is also a time of grieving for me.  I miss the back-to-school shopping and the exciting beginning of all of the THINGS for the new year.  I miss “bouquets of newly-sharpened pencils”, the season of hands-on parenting with all the family traditions and night time prayers and snuggled up in jammies story reading.  I miss our first day of school chicken pot pie dinner, and I miss the annual measuring of our girls.

photo-159

Moms I know you.  I’ve been you.  Most of you are a little schizophrenic at this point.  You tackled summer with gusto, doing the strawberry picking and the zoo visits and fishing pole baiting memory-making, but you’re just so over summer now.  You’re ready to take a break from your role as Camp Director of all the Fun Outings in the Universe. Continue reading

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