1st

Meg and I's thanksgiving can be summarize in many ways by these two pictures.

Homework and disposable cameras

Comfy sweaters and chocolate bourbon pecan pie.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Music

Do you ever get little melodies stuck in your head forever?

That has happened to me.

Welcome to the Family

I have been sick. Miserably sick. So when Keith and I went to the grocery store he let me bring home a friend to keep me company in my sad state.

Meet Peggalandra.

She is full of love and very huggable. We call her Peggie.

Here is a picture of the whole family.

Gil doesn't really like having his picture taken.

I think gets that from Keith.

And me, actually.

We're a very unphotogenic family. Except for Peggy, obviously.

We're all watching Grey's Anatomy now and very happy.

So, so wrong.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is proof of what I have been telling you for months.

Many did not believe me. Many gasped in horror. All felt nauseous.

Dirty socks on the kitchen table.

Welcome to my life.

Youth

I'm 22. That's 154 in dog-years for all you who don't understand human years. It's not the same as 22 light-years, because light-years don't measure time they measure distance. Which makes me think:

If light-years measure the distance light covers in a year, what do dog-years measure?

Anyways, I'm 22 which is young. Not very young, just young. I can tie my shoes, drive, vote, hang out at bars, get married. There are probably more things I can do, but I can't remember them. More than just what I can do is what I am, a senior in college, a leader at my church, and a husband. I'm saying this because sometimes I feel old. Most of the time I hang out with people who are younger than I and most of the time this makes me lose perspective.

I look back on my life, and around at my peers and think, "look who God has made me." He made me moderately intelligent, has blessed me with opportunities to use my gifts and given me a beautiful wife. I can be thankful for this but if I stop there, to me, it feels like I'm limiting God. Col 2:6-7 says (NASB):

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

The verbs Paul uses are two tenses, past and perfect, and what I take out of this is that a correct thankfulness is not one only past reflection, just to our rootedness, but one where we look to what God is continuing to do in us. That's what we are grateful for, God's continued work.

That's why I'm young, and is why I may possibly always stay young. Because once I'm old, and I done becoming, I'm settled down, and I'm simply thankful for what God has done in my life, I've no room for what God has for me and I've no gratitude for God's continued work.

Meg and I are now going to spend the weekend with our Deacon board, and learn from people with much more experience in their lives. Should be fun!

Meg won't appreciate this as much as you...

I like music