Thankful!

I have been raised with a bent towards seeing the glass as always being half-full and not half-empty. My mom was an amazing individual who could always see some good in all people. I have been so blessed to have a wife who is even more of a person who rises above the moment to be positive and an amazing worker who doesn’t complain and finishes the clean up after our herd of teens leave after a church event. (Picture 40 teens in your house with adults and little kids enjoying smores that you have cooked on the backyard fire.)

I truly want to be better at being an encouragement and help to those around me that struggle in life. It is easy for me because I have my dreams in life coming true before me. How can I understand what its like to be a mom without any means that lives day to day and has kids now who are teens that complain all of the time? It is so easy to assume that poverty and the ability to be thankful is total dependent upon having financial means. Yet, I know that the statistics would show forth that even in yuppy-ville life isn’t perfect. The more you have doesn’t mean that you are happier and a better person!

So how do I seek to maintain a balance between being someone that puts on a cheery face without losing touch with my own pain and especially the hurt and heart ache of others? Did Jesus always walk around with a smile and a quick good morning? I had roommates in college that were night owls and resented the fact that I was a morning person that was too quick to say Praise the Lord at 6AM. Is it wrong to bug the ‘hell’ out of someone to bring heaven into him or her? I know that forcing my teens and adults to get up early to help with a painting project is always a good thing. I see my teens rise at 5:30 and actually text or call me and usually are ready to rock and roll.

Anne and I usually get up at 4:30 and take the dogs for a walk and then get ready to face our day. Yes, it would be so easy to roll over and sleep until 5:15 but we have four creatures that attack us that enable us to be early rises. It’s true that I say the same platitudes to my group, i.e. the early bird does catch the worm and if you snooze you loose and I’m sure you could come up with more. So there is some evidence that Jesus was an early riser who got up and got out before others could be a distraction. I want to say this had a lot to do with his ability to be positive and thankful even in the face of his own death.

My wife has a tradition every thanksgiving that before the big meal we go around our table and express what we are thankful about. Each year the response is the same, I’m thankful for my family……. Yes I’m thankful for my family and a God that is incredible!