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Thanksgiving

So every year during the month of November, I have slips of paper and a cornucopia sitting on our table. Each night we gather for dinner, we write 1 thing we are thankful for. I've saved them for the past 4 years. Think I might make a table runner out of them one day. So here's a sample of this year's "I'm thankfuls".

Morgan: * My friends * My family * School to learn * Daisy * My sister * Soda

Sarah: * Pancakes * My Family * Tests * Drinks * Friends * Home * USA * Girl Scouts * Sisters

Mike: * Warm Fall Days * Indoor plumbing * Cathy, Morgan, Sarah * Food * Real Maple Syrup * Smiles * Dinner

Me: * Date night in 3 nights! * Northpoint Church & ImpACT! * My eyes that let me see the smiles and beauty all around me * Weekends spent with family - just being together and enjoying life! * Mike's arms that I can fall into at the end of a long day. * The little things my girls get excited about.

A Little Pencil

So I've been thinking a lot lately, what is my responsibility to the poor and broken in my community, as well as globally. Do I have a responsibility? And what does it look like? Do I have a responsibility with my time, emotions or finances? And does my sense of responsibility come from a sense of guilt or from a heart of love?

Our pastor prays this prayer often, and it's been becoming my prayer as well. It says, "May the things that break your heart, God, break my heart too." Oh, how I want to care about the things that God cares about! And not just care about them, but I want them to break me, to the point where I have no choice but to do something! However, I find that too often it's easy to stay busy with my life, to make excuses and to just continue on, without giving any thought, let alone any action, to the poor and hurting and do I even dare admit it, the dying.

Sometimes I think my lack of motivation comes from the fact that I often feel like just being one person, how can I really make a difference with things like poverty, disease, illiteracy and spiritual emptiness? So I do nothing. I love this quote from church today:

'I am a little pencil the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.' ~Mother Teresa

I am a little pencil...but God is using me (or at least wants to use me, when I take the time to put action to those thoughts that are deep within me) to send His love into the world. Oh, how I need to remember this!

And then I've also had this conviction...how am I teaching compassion to my own children? Am I giving them opportunity to love others in the community who are hurt and broken? Am I modeling a life like this for them? Well today, we did a small thing and went shopping for food and toys to give to a family for the holidays. It was a small deed, and yet, who am I to judge what a small pencil can do?