Reflections

I pray everyone had an incredibly blessed Thanksgiving. We sure did. I know it's probably age but I never take for granted time spent with my family. My parents are in good health but they are in their 70s now and I don't get to see my brother and his family as often as I would like so I just treasure every moment we have together. I have good friends who have lost loved ones this past year and we get home to some tragic news of another friend losing his child. We hear about the man in Jupiter, Florida who killed so many of his family members during Thanksgiving together. It makes me so thankful to know that this is not all there is. God has a great plan for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose and we get to spend all of eternity together.
We spent Thanksgiving Day with my parents and my brother's family along with a friend of my nephew and Chrissie's boyfriend who flew in that day. I spent a lot of time that day just thinking of how blessed I am that I am rich in relationships. I would trade all the "stuff" I have for the people God has put in my life. I thought as we stood together to pray before we ate that I love these people in this room so much but I also like all of them. We are all far from perfect and I'm sure before the night was over I said something wrong or rubbed someone the wrong way. We don't always agree but thank God we don't fight either. But we really do like each other. They are my family but they are also my friends. Vickie said in sunday school this morning that we don't get to choose our family like we get to choose our friends. It is very nice when your family can be your friends as well.
We also spent some time Christmas shopping a bit. I try to help my mom get hers done while I'm home so she doesn't have to do it by herself so we got that accomplished. And of course the weekend ended great with my Gamecocks getting a big win over Clemson, of which I'm also thankful for.
Well my stomach hurts still not only because of all the food I ate but also from all the laughing I did. It was a fabulous thanksgiving and I hope yours was as well.