Thanksgiving

I thought it might be nice to share a few things I am thankfull for this year, and to do that I wanted to share what it is I did on Thanksgiving.

I worked at both my jobs Wednesday before, so I was tired come Thursday morning. I intended to get up and make sweet potato crunch for my mom to take down to my brother's house. They had all planned to go down there and eat with him and his family, I was scheduled to work that night and didn't want to make a rushed trip back to Fitzgerald and planned not to go.
Well, dad had to play Santa for my brother-n-laws cousin down in Valdosta and so they were leaving earlier than I thought they would and I didn't get the chance to make the sweet potato crunch everyone has come to expect every holiday. (What can I say it is good!)
I laid around and finally, for my Thanksgiving meal, I opened a can of raviolli. Most people that ask how was you Thankgiving follow that question with an indepth description of everything they had to eat and how good it was. When I say I opened a can of raviolli, they almost gasp as if it is unAmerican to not have turkey and all the trimmings, but really what difference does it make.
Now not on Thanksgiving day, but later in the weekend, I sat down and thought about this odd reaction I was getting. I understand some people really feel turkey day, I mean Thanksgiving, is a day to spend with family and to reflect of how the past year was so great and to eat till you can't breath. Great! if that is your thing, go with it.
I can say that I am thankfull that I had anything at all to eat. There are so many people without and the road our country is on, next Thanksgiving there may be even more people without.
I can say I am thankful to have a family as cool as the one I've got. Sure they get on my nerves and it has never killed me to see them do something without me. I've always enjoyed my quiet space and don't see the point in ruining others good time when I'd rather be home alone. But there are times I do things with them and I can say I enjoy it when I do.
I can say I am thankful for the friends I have from school. I've lost touch with many of them, some just because we grew apart and others because of stupid descisions I've made. But it seems slowly one by one, I am getting contacted by them and updated on their lives is counted a blessing.
I am thankful for the church family I have. I know they are growing spiritually and learning about themselves as I am about myself. Even the church politics that always knocks me for a loop can't stop me from loving those people. I've tried to not like some of them because of it, but I don't have the strength.
I am most thankful for the fact the God has chosen me to be who I am. I know I am not perfect, nor will I ever be, but I know God has a plan for my life and I have to open myself up to growing into that plan. It is not secret that a couple years after I became a Christian that I turned my back on the whole thing. It is no secret that I tried to convince myself that what I knew was true, God died for my sins, was little more that group brainwashing; till I woke up and realised once you know the truth you can't unknow it and came back to the church. And I can be thankful that regardless of who I am, God is there picking me up over and over and over again, even when sometimes it would be better to leave me broken.
You know everyone wants to live a life without regret, but how can you do that. If we look back and see ourselves for who we were and who we are, how many of us can say we've been the best we could have been? How many can say they've treated everyone with respect, dignaty, and love. If I could say I've treated everyone with a loving heart, I'd be happy. But I have not and do not. I allow myself to engage in conflict with members of our church over petty things - my blog, VBS, getting a bus - and fail to remember that Jesus brought people to Himself with love. And He is the example set before us to teach us how to live.

I think Thanksgiving, for me, is best summed up as a time Thankful for the reminder to be self-reflective. The food isn't important, and doesn't matter.
Who I am to myself and to others is.