Happy Thanksgiving

So many things to be thankful for today and every day. Hopefully the people in my life know how thankful I am for them. I try to spread my gratitude for my family and friends (yes, that includes you, too)throughout the year and not save it for one day.

At church last Sunday, the children's "sermon" was focused on gifts. Amy, the fantabulous education leader, told a story that I will try to sum up...

When Amy was younger, she loved going to her Grandma's house. Her grandmother had a box under her bed full of gifts in case she was going to a party or someone's house for dinner. Once when Amy was over, she and her grandma had somewhere to go and they pulled out the box to find a gift. To Amy's horror, there were 2 gifts in there that Amy had given to her grandmother in previous years.

Anyway, this story and the special box of gifts under the bed reminded Amy, and trust me that she put this much more eloquently than I am right now, that often times as we get older, we don't use the gifts that we have as often as we once did. She is a fabulous artist and she realized that in the day to day hustle and bustle of life with 3 boys, a job and various other responsibilities, she let her gift of painting for herself, go by the wayside.

The whole purpose of her talk was to use your gifts and share them with people, not hide them under your bed and let them get dusty. Obviously, it resonated with me because I am still thinking of it on Thursday. I take pictures, but usually it is for a reason: someone is paying me to take their picture. My gift of taking pictures just for the fun of it, just for me, has been buried under my bed. So, time to dust of the camera and take some artsy fartsy pictures and you my blog friends will be the recipient of my "gift".

So, on this Thanksgiving, while we are being thankful, what gift do you have that is getting dusty?