A Snapshot of Thanksgiving

Last week we headed to my parents’ house along with 12 other people. We all celebrated Thanksgiving Day with a load of food. I brought sweet potato casserole and Elissa brought her yummy green bean casserole. We’re pretty classic with our Thanksgiving, nothing too fancy, all the dishes the same every year.

But my new favorite dish was a cranberry relish courtesy of my mother-in-law. Since my in-laws from South Carolina were in town for the week, we took the week off and showed them the sights of Colorado and the scenic trails that we hike regularly. Earlier this year I made the mistake of assuring my mother-in-law that we’d certainly have snow during Thanksgiving week. Yet we ended up with 60-degree weather.

Spending a week with family made me freshly thankful for the blessings I have. If all of us stop long enough to really contemplate how much we’re blessed, we will be pouring out thankfulness to God. The automatic response is praise.

You don’t need much stuff to feel blessed. I remember visiting El Salvador and meeting Christians with overflowing joy. Yet they didn’t have the material possessions we have.

As I’m writing this, the Christmas season is in full swing. Every other commercial is selling the best gift to stick under the tree. It’s easy for me to get caught up in the sights and smells of Christmas, treating it like a national holiday or a big event to get ready for. I love having people over and going to parties. But this isn’t Christmas.

I looked up the word “Advent” to see what it meant. I had heard the word so many times in church but I really didn’t feel the impact.

Advent (from the Latin word adventus meaning "coming") is a season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas.

Expectant. Waiting.

I have to confess that my expectancy is normally about the feeling when Christmas Day comes around and I celebrate with family, food and gift giving. Yet, that’s not the main point of Advent. It’s a spiritual journey, expectantly waiting, so that with each day I grow closer to Christ through the miracle and revelation of His first coming.

And the expectancy shouldn’t end the night of December 25^th. We still wait in anticipation for the second coming of Christ, keeping our eyes on Him as we ring in another year, make our plans, and walk out the next 365 days.

-Becca

What happened to kindness?

Kindness. It's a lost virtue in our sporadic, fussy society. The mindset that goes around commonly every day is "I'm entitled to being treated a certain way, served a certain way, on my schedule, to fit my needs."

Today at the hair salon was no different. I walked into an already intense dialogue between a client and stylist. A simple mistake of being double-booked, which no one likes, turned into an excuse to give a speech on why she was entitled to her appointment that second. Despite the attempts to solve the problem by the stylist, the client stormed out, blasting out words that left the atmosphere cold. The stylist stood there in tears, and those in the salon were silent in shock.

What happened to kindness? Sure, its pretty inconvenient to reschedule a hair appointment. And everyone can relate to experiencing inconveniences at airports. Traveling full-time means this comes with the territory. But surely disagreements can be sorted out in a more respectful manner, can't they?

Gone are the good ol' days when strangers would chat on the bus about random things, and people would smile at each other when passing on the sidewalk. I don't think I was born yet when those good ol' days were in their prime. Kindness was not just a learned virtue, it was actually practiced and disrespecting someone was not acceptable.

Where does kindness come from? Titus 3:4 says, "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy."

Kindness is an attribute of God, and when we're kind to people, we're like God.

Knowing you've been shown the greatest expression of kindness through the salvation of our souls, gives us a reason to be kind to people.

When we first started the band, I was in my freshman year of high school. Peers were not expectant of you to be kind to your parents, and not much has changed. It's much cooler to be independent and do what you want. Some of that had rubbed off on my 14-year-old mind. I am ashamed to admit it. One day our drummer called me out on it. It wasn't long into the conversation before my heart completely broke. I realized even in front of my friends I had been slacking in my respect and kindness toward my parents. I immediately asked God to forgive me. I'm thankful my friend was bold enough to confront me in a gracious way and remind me of how important kindness is.

We have been shown generous grace and kindness by God, who saved an unkind people, so He could make us into the image of His Son! Let's not forget to extend that kindness to others, even in the inconvenience of life.

-Becca