Perseverance is sometimes going through the motions of a circumstance even when it’s not all fun and games! An online dictionary gave me the following definition when I googled the definition of perseverance. Perseverance is the “steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.”
I think that is exactly how I would describe my Thanksgiving day! There was nothing bad that happened. There was nothing over the top exciting for sure either. However, if I had to describe my day I would say it was awkward and difficult. I would say we persevered. There was nothing we skipped. However, it felt like we simply persevered.
The Meal
I spent much time preparing the meal. I love to cook so this was not a difficult task. However, it was a time-consuming task. I still haven’t mastered my mama’s dressing despite how hard I have tried. And that doggone turkey, I need turkey cooking lessons. I followed the instructions to the T. I put that baby on the smoker and smoked it for several hours, then I put it in the oven and cooked all night. It was nice and juicy but I did not like the flavor. I think other people make much better turkeys than I do!
The Mood
The mood was just awkward. It felt like we all walked around on eggshells. What do we say to each other? There is a large hole missing this year. What is my dad feeling that he’s not sharing? Do we try to distract the sadness or do we let this year be a year marked by awkwardness and sadness? In my grief emails I have been receiving, it says the best thing to do is to keep it small and quiet. They also say it’s okay to mention the missing person. So I did both. I acknowledged that my mom was missing. I spoke with my dad about her as well. We also kept it small and quiet, just us for Thanksgiving this year. From the moment we said the Thanksgiving prayer until the moment I went to bed I fought tears constantly. Sometimes I contained the tears and sometimes the tears spilled out of my eyes. My dad slipped out and took a long walk outside right before the meal. I felt like that was his time of grieving and trying not to ruin the meal for our entire family. However, I felt like he was in his own little world most of the time.
Krisann’s Questions
Months ago I had a dinner question jar. When we had a meal as a family, we would pull a question and discuss. Krisann fell in love with this idea. So as we approached Thanksgiving, I found some wonderful questions. Wednesday night at dinner we talked about “Would You Rather” questions. These were quite silly questions, maybe an attempt to lighten the mood. At our Thanksgiving meal, the questions centered around thankfulness. My dad didn’t get to skip the questions either. He was included in the discussions, with the exception of one question. One question asked you to name one thing about each sibling you are grateful for. Krisann decided Papaw had too many siblings for her to have to wait that long to ask another question. LOL! We definitely reflected on things we were thankful for, which is what Thanksgiving is about right? We persevered through Krisann’s questions and did reflect and speak our gratitude for different things.
Perseverance is a step in the healing process.
This thought process has really got me to thinking, if persevering through the holiday is a part of healing, what other areas of my life do I need to persevere and allow healing to happen? And what exactly does healing look like?
I begin to make a list of areas where I need to persevere.
–Beginning a writing and speaking ministry
–Developing relationships
–Homeschooling when I feel like I’m not adequate
–Seeking after God
–Praying for miracles
Then I considered my next questions…what does healing in those areas look like?
–A successful writing career (published books, speaking engagements, etc.)
–A group of close-knit friends
–Confidence in knowing how best to reach/teach my child
–A confident, grounded, Christian
–Healing
But then I was forced to ask myself what does healing look like from God’s perspective? And to be honest, I couldn’t answer each one as God would. But what I do know is perseverance…
–produces character and character produces hope (Romans 3:3-5)
–requires us to put on our armor (Ephesians 6:11)
–brings about perfection and completeness (James 1:4)
–leads to blessing (James 1:12)(Galatians 6:9)
When I evaluate perseverance in this light then why is it so hard to persevere? I mean who wants to be a person of character? I do! Who wants to wear the armor of God? I do! Who wants to be made perfect and complete? I do! Who wants blessings? I do!! Persevering should be easy, right? Wrong. Even when we know the blessings and benefits, persevering is still hard!
So my Thanksgiving was a Persevering Thanksgiving and it was hard. However,
[bctt tweet=”I know the truth about persevering and I want those things in my life, so I choose to persevere!” username=”kksmith8694″]
And I’m trying my best to persevere with joy!
