Thankful on Thanksgiving

I found that there was a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

So here is my list: 1) God's provision: I was able to make Thanksgiving dinner and had the money to buy all the food and not stress 2) all the fam made it: mom and Al, Becky and her boyfriend, and my dad! 3) Al made it through the holidays and interacted more with us than ever before (miracle)! 4) amazing community of people (5 or 6 families came together on Thanksgiving and ate together) 5) A God that is in everything, who is faithful and good, and listens with perfect love and answers with our ultimate best at heart.

I wonder often why it is so hard to really tap into the essence of the holidays that we celebrate. It is so easy to go through the motions and lose sight of why we are doing what we are doing. When that happens the magic of the holidays is lost. In my job I have found that it is not always useful to focus on the "why". Like why did this happen to that person or why is this person the way that they are. It is much better to focus with people on "what and how". What is helping, how is your behavior helping or hindering you, what can we do to help right now. But with the holidays, I think it is important to ask why. Why are things important to us? I think sometimes understanding the "why" helps us to move into the "what and hows". So I guess the questions I keep asking myself are "how am I going to make this holiday season meaningful and not just go through the motions?" and "what does a meaningful holiday season look like?". Hmm....thoughts to ponder.