A Break from Busy-ness
by Skip Heitzig |Thanksgiving weekend is a very busy time. It's the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, and stores are offering all kinds of sales to lure people out. An estimated 130 million shoppers will crowd into stores this weekend. There are also at least seven football games on TV through the long weekend--and that's not including college games or NFL on cable. There are houses and lawns to decorate, cookies and cakes to prepare, etc.
With all of this going on, our priorities can become evident. We may concentrate more on yelling at the TV screen or jostling with people for a bargain than we do on the blessings God has placed in our lives. The late humorist Erma Bombeck wrote, "Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence." Sometimes we rush to get back to our activities and we overlook what's more important, like our families.
Psalm 127 talks about the blessings of having a family. "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them" (v. 3-5). Likewise, your spouse is a blessing from God. "He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord" (Proverbs 18:22). Of course, this applies to husbands, too.
Think about that--your family is a gift from God to you. You might take them for granted because they're around all the time. Or the challenges of dealing with parents, grandparents, children, siblings, etc., might make them seem like anything but a blessing. But they are. We need to give them our attention because they're also our responsibility. John's comment about his spiritual children in Third John 4 should be our hope for our own children as well: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth."
Now, I'm not criticizing all the activity. It's part of our lives. But take time away from the game(s), the shopping, the general "busy-ness," to spend time enjoying the heritage and the blessings you have received from the Lord. Sears and Saks, the Colts and the Cowboys--they'll be around next week, and they won't notice if you're not there to buy, or to cheer. But your family will notice if they get crowded out.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
With all of this going on, our priorities can become evident. We may concentrate more on yelling at the TV screen or jostling with people for a bargain than we do on the blessings God has placed in our lives. The late humorist Erma Bombeck wrote, "Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence." Sometimes we rush to get back to our activities and we overlook what's more important, like our families.
Psalm 127 talks about the blessings of having a family. "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them" (v. 3-5). Likewise, your spouse is a blessing from God. "He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord" (Proverbs 18:22). Of course, this applies to husbands, too.
Think about that--your family is a gift from God to you. You might take them for granted because they're around all the time. Or the challenges of dealing with parents, grandparents, children, siblings, etc., might make them seem like anything but a blessing. But they are. We need to give them our attention because they're also our responsibility. John's comment about his spiritual children in Third John 4 should be our hope for our own children as well: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth."
Now, I'm not criticizing all the activity. It's part of our lives. But take time away from the game(s), the shopping, the general "busy-ness," to spend time enjoying the heritage and the blessings you have received from the Lord. Sears and Saks, the Colts and the Cowboys--they'll be around next week, and they won't notice if you're not there to buy, or to cheer. But your family will notice if they get crowded out.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
In His strong love,
Skip Heitzig
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