On all days…in all ways…thank you

Lord, I’m thinking of my kids today and I want to thank you for the small stuff.

For the way they smelled as babies. For the way it felt to hold them while they slept…for their tiny hands and feet and for their vulnerability and their trust.

Thank you for being there when I brought my oldest daughter home and had no idea what to do.  For the way we muddled through together, making it up as we went along, knowing that love and some food and some rest would sustain us.  Thanks for the time to linger and just stare at her in wonder and awe.

Thank you for bath times and bed times.  Thank you for books and for snuggling and for laughing and reading together.  Thank you for a peaceful home and healthy bodies. Thank you for the soap you write with on the bathroom wall and for fluffy towels with hoods.

Thank you for the times when you stayed up with me as I stared into the cribs watching their chests rise and fall and praying the next breath would come.  Thank you for sitting with me in the darkness.

Thank you for the messiness and the chaos and the fun.  Thank you for the moments when I knew it was more important to let them eat ice cream than it was to have a clean house.

Thank you for slip and slides and bowling and movies and cookies.   Thank you for birthday cake and parties and silly games.  Thank you for swings and rocks and sand.  Thank you for Happy Meals and Disney World and goldfish and the zoo.  Thank you for sprinklers and picnics.  Thank you for ballet and those pretty dresses!

Thank you for the lazy days when we had nothing to do and nowhere to go so we would walk to the park.  Thank you for the people we met along the way.  Thank you for the times when we were bored and waiting.

Thank you for princess dresses and sippy cups.  Thank you for Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine and Legos.  Thank you for pizza and pancakes.  Thank you for art supplies and tie dye and pottery and friendship bracelets.  Thank you for baseball and football and bikes and scooters.

Thank you for books – picture books and chapter books.  Thanks for the kind you could chew on and the one that had the fuzzy dog.  Thank you for Junie B. Jones and Ramona and Hank Zipzer and the Magic School Bus.

Thank you for long nature walks and leaves scrunching under our feet.  Thank you for fluffy white snow and snowmen and sledding and hot chocolate.   Thank you for hot summer days and lemonade stands and garage sales.  For convertible rides and fireworks on the Fourth of July.  Thank you for the pool and the twirly slide and slurpees at 7-Eleven.

Thank you for little eyes that look up to me and little hearts that are open.  Thank you for the funny words kids say and the stories they tell.  Thank you for making them all so different and all so special.

Thank you for their resilience Lord and for their understanding.  Thank you for their acceptance of a mom who is not perfect, who struggles, who doesn’t like to clean or cook, who sometimes cries and gets her feelings hurt.  Thank you for putting it in their hearts to love and understand me.  Thank you for the times when they know to give me a hug or a smile or to say something funny.

Thank you for the past with these beautiful little people.  And thank you for the future, whatever that holds.  I’m hoping for more laughter and funny pictures and warm memories…more creating and dreaming and painting and getting dirty.  More time together.

See Lord, when I’m hurried and rushed and I say “Thank you, Amen”, I really mean all of these things and more.  The list is extensive.  I know you understand.  I think that’s why we celebrate Thanksgiving.  It’s a day to take the time to thank you for the small things.  It’s the day we realize the small things are actually the big things.  The small things add up to be our life.  So next time I say, “Lord, thank you for all my blessings”, please know I really mean it…in all ways, on all days…thank you.

 

©2012 Sue Bidstrup, Great Big Yes™ All Rights Reserved