Home For The Holidays

Home for the Holidays

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.

Colossians 4:2

Maybe you’ve heard or read this story before:

An elderly man in Phoenix called his son in New York saying, “I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough.”

“Pop, what are you talking about?” the son shouted in surprise.

“We can’t stand the sight of each other any longer,” the old man said. “We’re sick of each other, and I’m sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her,” and he hung up.

Upset, the son called his sister, who couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What, they’re getting a divorce? I’ll take care of this!” she shouted.

She called Phoenix and said, “Daddy, you’re not getting divorced. Don’t do a thing until I get there. I’m calling my brother back, and we’ll both be there tomorrow,” and hung up.

The old man hung up his phone, too, and turned to his wife. ““Okay, they’re coming for Thanksgiving. You think of something for Christmas.”^a

We may chuckle at this story, but the truth is that many of us have a tough time getting together as a family around this time of year. For innumerable reasons, the family is more fragmented these days than ever before. So if you’re not going to be with your extended family during this season, don’t let it stop you from expressing your appreciation for them.

And if for some reason a rift is keeping you from connecting, try a little humble pie with your turkey dinner. Why? Because as Henry Ward Beecher put it, “Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.”

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.

—W. T. Purkiser

^a 159