Losing track

Today is our sixteenth wedding anniversary! Before I began writing this today, I realized that I have not posted anything since the day after Thanksgiving! When I first began "blogging" I had every intention of posting something a few times a week. How often do we live like that... great intentions...little follow through. We want to send out Christmas cards, spend time with a hurting friend, take our kids out for ice cream...but then we allow "living' to take over. We fool ourselves into thinking what we are doing is whats most important. We don't play goldfish with the little one, we don't tell our spouse how truly special they are, we don't stop to pray for someone in need because we have to get to a meeting. And then we call that "living". We are missing out on so much. We take so much for granted. Right now I have a friend that is going through her first Christmas without her husband. She is only two years older then me and had to bury her husband earlier this year. I don't know what to say or do for her, to help her during this time. Then as I write this, the thought occurs to me; wouldn't the best thing for me to do is to learn from her experience, not let her experience be in vain. Shouldn't it cause me to rise up and live every day to the fullest, enjoying my family, telling them how special they are? Shouldn't I appreciate every day that I have? Wouldn't that be the best way to honor the memory of her husband, what she is going through right now? I'm ashamed to say, that I haven't done any of that. I continue to take my time for granted. Yesterday, I did something though that I learned from her..instead of doing our regular school work yesterday, we went to the botanical gardens and I took pictures of the kids. Even in that though I found myself wanting to "control" the poses,make them just right. Why couldn't I let the goofy faces roll on out, let the kids simply have fun and make the day a great memory? I was too focused on the seen(the photos) instead of the unseen.(our hearts being bound together while we had fun.) Oh Lord help me to see everything through your eyes. I want to be like Mary....not trying to out do Martha. So for today, the dirty dishes will sit for awhile longer and we are going to make breakfast together and then maybe even bake some cookies for Daddy. As we celebrate our anniversary today, let it truly be a new beginning to how we live our lives. Karen... we love you, Mike we miss you!!!!!!