Don’t Forget This One Thing This Thanksgiving

I have had an unusually busy time at work for the past couple of months. While thinking about work/life balance and experiencing mom guilt is something I am familiar with, it seems like lately I have been hit harder in the attempt to find any sort of balance.

I know many can relate to this.

Of course, in the midst of it all we now have the holidays approaching at full speed. It is truly my favorite time of the year but I can’t help but feel frustrated that it is being paired with more chaos than usual. I know, that’s just life. But it still feels frustrating.

This will be my sixth-year hosting Thanksgiving. Year one started out stressful just because of the pressure I put on myself but it turned out to be a fantastic day and I actually got to enjoy the food and company. Year two again started out stressful because it was 2020 and, well, we know most things in 2020 came with some sort of craziness.

As I approach this year of hosting the holiday, I feel like a pro. It’s not my first rodeo so I am coming into it with the confidence that our turkey will be delicious and that we will have enough pie. All things that I remember being so concerned about with year one.

Last week, I sat down to write out my Thanksgiving plan including my shopping list, what I could prep the day before and what times I needed to start cooking certain items the day of. Making this list helps my head to ensure I am scrambling as little as possible at 2pm when our guests start arriving.

As I was jotting everything down and getting excited for the holiday season, I felt this wave of something come over me. It was like a mix of emotions and also this sense that I was forgetting something. This caused me to perforate off another sheet of paper and re-write my list thinking that whatever I was forgetting would jump out at me. It didn’t.

Was it just the feeling of chaos and my balance being off more than normal that was causing me to feel like I was forgetting something?

Staring at my list, I felt another wave of something come over me. It was one of those moments where I didn’t actually hear a voice but I felt a voice. I paused to let myself feel it.

Be thankful.

Thank you, Lord for that reminder! I was focusing so much on the logistics of hosting Thanksgiving that the true importance wasn’t even on my radar.

I was so busy feeling sorry for myself a little bit and allowing myself to be frustrated that I started going through the motions of the holiday without stopping to remember what I truly need to be doing.

This holiday season, I pray that we remember to be thankful. Whether we are trying to host the perfect feast or find the perfect gift as we approach the Christmas holiday; that we remember none of that stuff truly matters. It’s only stuff. I pray to keep my ears open to those voices reminding me to be thankful for things like health, family, friends and faith.