A Thankful Heart | Day 5.

{EAV_BLOG_VER:8308a50dce2d6c9a}

Today I am thankful for technology.

We use technology for so many things – life saving equipment, photography sharing, communications, etc. So often we use it that we don’t even realize it anymore. The word technology contrives images of computers and smart phones but there’s so much more than that.

With the use of technology I’m able to snap pictures of my boys, load them to my computer, and either upload them to Facebook or email them globally. With a few clicks of the mouse images are sent around the word. Literally. It still kind of blows my mind how fast things travel in today’s society.

Families who are rarely in the same state {or even country} can communicate easier today than ever before – phones, online chat services {think Skype, Facetime, & other such companies}, and of course there’s Facebook.

It amazes me the advances made in technology just during my lifetime. Computers have gone from being these ugly monstrosities to these handheld devices about the size of a magazine. Mobile phones have gone from these massive blocks that plug into the car to these slim-lined, smaller than your palm, fits in your pocket size gadget that most parents now use to appease their children.

Oh and then there’s GPS in nearly everything – cars, computers, phones. Nice little tracking devices that not only give you directions when you’re lost but help people find you if necessary.

A Thankful Heart | Day 4.

Friendship.

Something we all take lightly until we learn the true meaning of friendship and what it takes to be a real friend to those around us. I’ve had many friends throughout the years – as is evidenced by the number of friends currently listed on my Facebook page. However, it usually takes a personal tragedy in order for us to discover those we love enough to call friends.

I consider myself a pretty loyal person. It’s not easy for me to walk away from friendships or relationships but over the years I’ve developed a system of accomplishing exactly that. Basically if a person is a danger to themselves or a potential danger to my kids they’re gone – no questions asked.

There are very few people I trust enough to take care of my kids when I need help with them. Those are the ones I can go to about anything {positive or negative} AND they’re the ones I’m there for in good times or bad.

There’s a saying that goes

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words

I love that saying because it is so very true.

Today I’m thankful for my friends – you know who you are.

A Thankful Heart.

I determined a while ago that I would post on what I am thankful for. It layer dawned on me that I could do that daily during the month of November. Then I discovered National Blog Posting Month and knew I wanted to accept the challenge of blogging daily, something I’ve not done in ages.

I started to tell you all of the normal things; I’m thankful for my family, friends, home, etc. and it isn’t that I’m not so very grateful I have those people and things in my life it’s that there’s something more pressing on my heart as I write this.

Today has been a day full of tragedy to an unimaginable extent for people I am acquainted with in one form or another. Everything from homes and material possessions up in flames to not knowing if a child’s voice will ever be heard to the loss of one lived so deeply. Today has been an emotional day on many accounts and while not directly affected there has been a sharp reminder that the life I live is not my own but His.

Today I am most thankful for life.

Life that can and will be lived to the fullest. Life that allows me the opportunity to hug and hold my children. Life that is full of laughter and joy even during the hardest times.

Even beyond that I am thankful for the life, willingly placed upon a cross so long ago, given in my place so that I might have life eternal.

Where Were You?

There are many infamous days in our history.

JFK’s assassination.

Pearl Harbor.

The OKC bombing.

Just to name a few. These are days that regardless of everything else we remember every detail of where we were and what we were doing at that exact moment.

9/11 is one of those days we will always remember every detail.

I was asleep when my mom called from South Dakota and told me to turn on the tv, to any news channel. Normally I would have said, “later” and gone back to sleep but she had that tone of voice that you don’t argue with. I turned the television on to see the smoke billowing from the first tower and just in time to watch the second tower get hit.

My initial reaction and the first thing I remember asking my mom is, “What’s gonna happen to my brother?” There was never a question of whether he would go. It was a matter of when. Just a few years earlier my brother had enlisted in the National Guard. By a fluke of accidental miracles he was never deployed.

 

 

 

Later that morning I headed to work. First day out of training at a new job. I remember people calling in and complaining about President Bush preempting everything. Eight hours later I was so drained from watching the events of the day and dealing with people’s selfishness. I know more than once I reminded people how we felt when the OCK bombing happened and that the attacks on the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, and the crash in Pennsylvania were much worse than anything we’ve encountered before. They didn’t want to hear it. In the days following, however, things changed. The overall attitude of customers was one of ‘how can I make this better?’ instead of ‘it’s all about me’.

Life changed in that moment.

For thousands of people, lives were flipped upside down. The people lost were mothers, fathers, daughters, sisters, sons, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. Each person has a face, a story, a life that was cut short.

To the Soldiers, EMTs, Firefighters, PD’s, other public service agents I’ve not mentioned – thank you for your time and your sacrifice to help those in need. You are true heroes.

Boys vs. Girls.

Not long ago I was in the doctor’s office with ZigZag and was struck by something I’d never truly considered before. Here was my son, waiting for his appointment, being a bit rowdy with the toy trucks and completely oblivious to the fact he’d taken over the waiting room from a quiet little girl who ran to her mom as soon as ZigZag began to play. Fortunately it was a slow day and we were the only people in the office aside from this little girl and her mom.

Maybe it’s because I have boys.

Most of the girls we know have brothers so they can hold their own but boys and girls are so different! I know. I know. That’s kind of a ‘duh’ moment for most of you.

This little girl was so completely shy. She hid under her momma’s legs and played with one of the smaller cars. By the time she was called back for her appointment she had stepped out a bit – she was playing ‘catch’ with ZigZag by rolling the cars back and forth to each other.

But it dawned on me, my son didn’t even notice her until I pointed her out. Not that I’m trying to marry him off at the age of five or anything like that but that he was so wrapped up in his world that he couldn’t spare even a moment to see someone else.

Often times we, as Christians even, get so entirely wrapped up in what’s going on around us – in our own little worlds – that we don’t notice those around us. Those people we love to keep up with on Facebook but only if their status update shows up in our news feeds. Or those who we see only at holidays or birthdays, family reunions or funerals. Or those we talk to only when it pertains to our own dire need right at that moment.

When is the last time you called someone just to say hello?

and truly meant it in a ‘just saying hi’ kind of way?

Or smiled at a stranger?

Or helped someone carry their items?

Some things I’ve learned recently by stepping outside of myself to check on the well-being of others:

Two amazing people are officially parents and bringing their son to his forever home as I type this.

One amazing young woman left her home for Wales to spend the next nine months training in a foreign country to be a missionary to Africa permanently at the end of that time.

Many of my friends are engaged or pregnant – too many to count at this point! (Thank you Oklahoma Blizzard!)

The point is

the world is bigger than you and me

Period.

It’s bigger than all of us and it’s time we set aside our own agenda’s and started actually caring about those around us.

I can hear you now, “but what can I do? I’m just one person”.

So is Jesus.