I am oh so thankful!

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone and as I sit here to reflect, my heart is full. Normally, I go to bed around 9:30 or so in the evening, but last night I stayed up till 2 a.m. talking to my mom. It has been awhile since we have stayed up that late and talked! It felt good to bare my heart with her as she did with me. My parents live in Oregon, six hours north of us and getting together is truly a gift in and of itself! Telephone conversations don't tell the whole story...it's better face to face. The facial expressions, the knowing looks and the pauses all tell another version of how things are really going.

This summer I visited my parents and we made a visit to a cool old barn that has been fixed up as a gift store. I purchased a decorative wooden oar with this saying written on it; "Sit long, talk much." Well, last night that is just what we did.

I think that we all need to slow down a bit and just sit and talk with one another. I love the pictures of homes with wrap around porches filled with rocking chairs and porch swings. Sitting down with a tall glass of sweet iced tea or a cup of coffee and talking with family and friends is so meaningful to me. It's about relationship; strengthening those ties that bind.

I am thankful that I still can sit down with my mom and talk to her. It seems that time just gets away from me sometimes and I tend to forget what is most important in my life. Several days can go by without having talked to my mom or dad and then it hits me...I need to call Mom and Dad!!

It seems that when my parents are here or when I am visiting them in Oregon, time just flies by! There never seems to be enough time to do all of the things that we want to do together or the days just slip quickly by and we haven't said all those things that are on our heart to share. When we depart, I always feel like my heart is left wanting more.

I was so tired when I finally retired to bed early this morning. Black Friday had already begun and I knew that I was not ready to greet it just yet! My Dad gets up fairly early and I knew that he would be up and spending time reading the bible or a good book. Steve and Zoe had gotten up early and went to Walmart to catch some of those crazy door busters. Even though my body was craving a couple more hours of sleep, my spirit was aching to talk to my dad. It seems that we hardly get enough time to just sit and talk. So, I pulled myself out of bed, wrapped my robe around me and went into the living room to find my dad. There he was, just as I knew I would find him. He was sitting on the love-seat reading a book about perserverance. Lately, my dad has been feeling a bit discouraged in his place of ministry as a pastor of a small Pentecostal church in Oregon. I wanted to sit with him and hear his heart. As we talked, I learned about more of the details of his life and ministry experience. The things that I learned about his passion for reaching people really clarified things in my life. I was wishing that I had a voice recorder with me to capture these tender moments of wisdom.

One morsel of wisdom that my father imparted to me today was the importance of publicly appreciating the willing and faithful few that God has placed in our church to labor alongside of us for the Lord. "Make sure to publicly pat them on the back, and appreciate the work that your volunteers do", Dad said. As I sat there and listened to him tell me of all the different bus ministries that he had been involved in, I could not help but think of all the countless hundreds of lives that he has affected for the Kingdom of Heaven! My dad told me, "I wish that I had the energy that I had back then!" He looks at his current situation and feels discouraged. He knows things need to change, but how? Who will be the agents of change? Who will count the cost to reap the reward? One thing is for sure, I know he will, and I will do my best to follow his example!

I feel so blessed to know my dad better today than I did when he came down on Tuesday. The stories he told about the places we lived when I was growing up are so precious to me, now that I am in the ministry and going through my own ups and downs of pastoral ministry. The stories help to fill in the gaps that I was never privileged to hear when I was just a little girl, growing up in my parents home. I remember bits and pieces of our lives as pastors, but now the stories are all the more rich with meaning as I sit on the other side of things in this season of my life.

And the story goes on...yours and mine. Take time to share what is on your heart. Take time to get to know the people that matter most to you. Do it NOW. It may surprise you, enlighten you, inspire you and encourage you to keep on keepin' on. What we do with our lives counts. How we live our lives today will influence each tomorrow.