With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, many thoughts come to mind. One of them is how thankful I am to God for being Mom to three wonderful sons. As moms, one of the most important things we can do is to leave a lasting positive imprint in the memories our children. I believe that one of the greatest gifts God has bestowed on us moms is the power to influence what experiences our children have as they grow up. I still find that amazing. One of my kids’ memories is putting up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend. Going through all of the old family ornaments and hanging them. They all think I am a sap!
As we go through another Thanksgiving, I love to recollect holidays of the past. – large family gatherings with lots of food and people. A lot of kids get overwhelmed with all of the excitement, noise and family members they don’t see a lot. When my boys were younger, I always tried to make sure that they got my attention as they required it on this very busy day. I found that most times this was a very hard thing to do. There was dinner to prepare, baking to be done, cleaning, arranging, shopping… the list goes on. Taking the time to give each child the attention they required was sometimes impossible! As a child, I remember Thanksgiving was a blurry, busy day. My mom was always the hostess and my sister and I always looked forward to this day. My mom always took the time to let my sister and I be kids, make messes and attempt to cook. We would always take turns saying what we were thankful for. She had the patience of a saint! I can only say that I wish I had a quarter of the patience she had. I pray for that still.
I also think about future Thanksgivings during this time of year. I am a breast cancer survivor so every Thanksgiving from the day I was diagnosed is a well appreciated gift. My boys were 13, 8 and 4 when the news came. It was about this time of year in 1999 that I was going through the plethora of test, surgeries, recoveries etc. Thanksgiving prior to that year was rush to do this, rush to do that, hustle the kids from one event to another – not really enjoying the moment and certainly not giving the one on one attention that each child deserved. That year Thanksgiving was very different. Time seemed to stop and everything has kind of been in a heaven sent slow motion ever since. I try to imagine what my kids’ future Thanksgivings will be like and what they will be thankful for. Will they have families, pets, gatherings at their homes? I am sure that many blessings will come. I believe that is what faith means: knowing and recognizing the blessings that you have and believing in the silver lining.
My children are all grown now and I pray that they have beautiful memories of Thanksgiving Day.
