It has been over a year since I have last posted. Sorry for such a delay.
I felt the need to write today. Thanksgiving Day. A day to give thanks for the many things in life that you find to be worthy of thanks. Today also kicks off to the holiday season! A season of thanksgiving, hope, and joy. There are so many fun festivities just around the corner!
However, while family and friends gather around their tables to celebrate the upcoming holidays (including today), many will have a few empty seats. I know, this season is the hardest for myself and my family because today marks the 5th year since my brother C.J. has left this Earth. Like many of you reading this, our table is missing a seat; our lives are missing specific laughter; and our family is simply missing a piece.
At the time C.J. passed away I was not a Christian. Yes, I attended church. Yes, I owned a bible. Yes I prayed occasionally, (when I really wanted something, or to be forgiven for some awful thing I had done). Yes, I believed in God. But I was not a follower of Jesus. I thought all I had to do was ask for forgiveness and I could do the same horrible things over and over again. I was literally in denial that there was possibly something out there bigger than me. When C.J. died, my life went spiraling downhill. I had so much resentment towards God for taking my brother. I didn't understand how there was so many horrible people living on this Earth and my brother was dead. At that point, I did not want anything to do with God, religion, or anything that had to do with any of it. Two years after my brother passed away I hit rock bottom.
There are many people in my life that do not know the exact train wreck that my life was. They know to an extent the things that I had done, but only a few know exactly how bad my life had actually gotten. It was weeks after the birth of my son Christian (I know, it was like an omen or something, I was not a Christian at the time of his birth but I named my son Christian, it does not get much more backwards than that!!!) that I decided to try the whole “Church” thing again. To make a long story short, I found God. I found everything I had been missing in my life. I found so much understanding of so many events that had happened in my life. I found forgiveness. And most importantly, I found thankfulness.
Ephesians 5:20 says “And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. “Everything” is not a slated word. “Everything” means what it says, EVERYTHING. How would you learn to appreciate the good if you don’t know what it feels like for bad things to happen? Looking back over the past five years I have so much to be thankful for. My family has grown so much, my sisters and I have all had children in the past five years and God has blessed us again with my current pregnancy! There have been engagements, marriages, career moves, education opportunities, and the list goes on!
This Thanksgiving, I could choose to continue to mourn the death of C.J. in sadness or I could do what I am suppose to do based from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in ALL circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” I choose to celebrate C.J.’s life today, and all of the things that I am thankful for. I miss him today, just as much as I do every single day since he has left this Earth, but I hold close to my heart the truth that someday I will see him again in Heaven. Revelation 21:4 says “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” One day my family will be whole again. All the pain and sorrow will be gone. We will all have joy!
As you sit around the table today with your family I encourage each of you to reveal what you are most thankful for. Enjoy the time that you spend with your families, sit back and soak in all the amazing things that you and your family have to be thankful for. Thank God! Thank Him for the blessings that he has bestowed upon you and your family and friends. Thank Him for the time that you had with those loved ones whom are no longer here, and praise him for the promise that you will one day see them again and spend eternity at the right hand of our Father!
Verses to think about:
Psalm 100 “Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thank to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good.His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.”
Romans 15:13 “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”