Thankful times

It has been over a year since I blogged and 2 years since I have done any serious blogging. It could be said that time flies when you are having fun but that has not necessarily been the case. Lets just say that life is messy and sometimes things that you want to do get pushed to the back burner in order to do what you need to do.  My wife and I have not had the marriage we dreamed about when we got married in 1992, that's right, I said it! It has had the peaks we looked forward to and it has had the valleys that we didn't. But it has really been those valleys that we have spent most of our time in and that is where our strength, love and persistence has been fortified the most. I am currently thinking of the song "down in the valley" being sung by our daughter Elani (its the only song she plays on her ukulele). I have always heard that to really know a person you have to walk a mile in their shoes. We have certainly walked in each others shoes, in fact we've walked together in the same pair of shoes for most of our 20 years. So, as Thanksgiving is a few days removed, I have been thinking of what I am thankful for and the list is really quite long, but I will keep it short for tonight's post and share others as time goes on. With that being said I am pleased with our marriage and look forward to the next 20 years!

1.  I am thankful the God is the most important influence in my life. The influence is involved in everything I do from marriage and family to work and play. I just hope that this is evident.

2. I am thankful for my wife who reminds me daily that I am not as important as I think I am, and that I am vitally important to the family unit in ways that are immeasurable(which I lose sight of almost daily).

3. I am thankful for all 4 of my daughters. I still see each of them as the 3 year old who thought I was Prince Charming and I also look forward to dancing at their weddings and seeing them raise their own families someday. They will always be my s princesses!

4. I am thankful for my current career(and hopefully the one I retire from) with The Knights of Columbus as a Field Agent. I truly get more than a paycheck from my work. I love being part of the Knights of Columbus, but as a Field Agent I see it from a different perspective than most of our members and I love what I see from this terrific Order.

5. I am thankful that life isn't easy. I truly believe that all the hard work combined with my faith is what helps my wife and I teach our kids persistence and a good work ethic. Of course, winning the Lotto would be nice, but I am reminded of the Bible passage where Jesus tells someone that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into Heaven. Of course this passage has meaning that I wont debate here, but the general impression I get is that we are supposed to work hard to get our eternal reward, I imagine it would be alot of work for that poor camel to pass through the eye of a needle.

6. Finally tonight, I am thankful that as the Christmas season approaches my family is trying to focus more on the religious and spiritual aspects of Christmas rather than the secular side where monetary gifts are the focus. I am looking forward to some of the different traditions we have started over the years that are more God centered and less secular centered. Things like the advent calendar, Advent wreath prayers, and reading select Chapters and verses from the Bible are quickly approaching to my delight.

These are some of what I am thankful for tonight. There are certainly other things that I am sure will come out over this Holiday season. I was reminded today at Church that being thankful is not the call of  the Christian to do only once a year.  We should be thankful all the time.