A Plate of Thanksgiving Dinner

I saw a wonderfully hilarious meme floating around Facebook right before Thanksgiving. The essence of it was "I'm so glad to be spending 6 hours cooking a Thanksgiving meal where all my kid will eat is a dinner roll." Talking with some friends who have young children they all seem so share the same sentiment.

Thankfully, my daughter ate a bit more than just her bread, but you could totally tell what foods she liked more. (Cranberry sauce, Brussels sprouts, bread, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin roll) She did not prefer any turkey with gravy, peas and carrots, and the mushroom stuffing/dressing. But, still, we offered a little of everything to try. Even as adults, we may put all the Thanksgiving foods on our plate and pretend to eat the things we like the least all the while sneaking seconds of those things we like the most.

God's love to us is a beautiful plate of Thanksgiving Dinner presented to us each new day. As much as we'd like to believe love is like a Hallmark Christmas movie where everyone ends in a lovey-dovey, cheery, everything is perfect, and happy way - this is not reality. Sometimes love can taste or feel a bit dry. Sometimes love can taste a bit overdone. Sometimes love is plain and simple in how it tastes and other times it is rich and flavorful. And sometimes, love looks messy or unappealing but turns out to be the best thing on the plate.

God gives the opportunity feast in His love in so many various forms and ways. And I'll be brutally honest...some taste better than others. I much rather have the sweet and endearing form of love (read: getting my daily quota of hugs and spending time with David and my daughter) rather than the "It will be good for you...now eat your veggies" form of love (read: cleaning up a giant mess that my daughter made after just cleaning up that area moments before or not receiving an answer to a prayer in the way I wanted). But we need to accept graciously all the ways God feeds us His love and asks us to feed love to others with whatever ingredients we have. When we skip the veggies and only eat the pie, we will miss out on other delightfully delicious opportunities God has presented for each of us to devour.

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Lord, 

You give so much love and goodness to me each new day to feast on. Sometimes I am stubborn and do not want to try the different ways you want to love me and to love others. Help me to be open to whatever you offer to me and what you want me to offer to others with a humble heart. 

In your name, 

Amen.

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Simply a little pencil in God's hand,

Elizabeth