Five Minute Friday: Thank You

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. Every year we each make a list of the things we are thankful for from the last year. We usually do it as we are traveling to or from where ever we are celebrating Thanksgiving that year. The list must include as many things as the number of years you have been alive. It is often tough for the kids to try to fit in all that they are thankful for in their small number. I let Abigail have a bonus one or two this year. I'll be posting our Thanksgiving lists later on today after I meet up with a couple more of the kids.

One thing that didn't make my list this year because how on earth do you fit it into just a line or two but I am prompted to write about it in 5 minutes today is my parents. I am so thankful for my parents. I am so grateful for their godly example that they gave me and the encouragement and challenge that they were to me over the years.

This year, though, how I am thinking about them is different. In a small way this year I am thankful that they are gone. I never really ever thought that I would ever say that but we are moving to the other side of the Mississippi late next spring/ early summer for residency (Lord willing). My parents were both born and raised and lived their whole lives in the small town that I grew up in. I think that it would be harder to leave New York if my mom and dad were still alive. Though they were OK with us going to the ends of the earth I know it still would have been hard on them and me for us to be far away from them. So many of the people that we've talked to on this interview trip have mentioned about being homesick and how hard it is to be away from home and have asked me how I am going to handle moving so far away from home. To me home has always meant mom and dad. Not having a mom and dad has kind of meant that I have no home. (Of course we have our own family unit now which is home to us but the idea of "going back home" is basically non-existent to me.) Home is heaven because my heavenly Father is there. My parents are there too because they both trusted Christ as their Savior. So, until I get to my real home - heaven, I am so thankful that I can be at home where ever God has us at the moment because He knows what is best. Even in taking my parents.

The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death. Isaiah 57:1-2

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