Giving Thanks

 

For this full, noisy life,

 

The seven babes we have here at our table and the three who were once here for seasons,

 who my heart always thinks of at the holidays.  Count their years, imagine and hope that they are in a good place.

For the husband who has been by my side for fifteen years,

the richness of life God has proportioned out for our good, the hard roads and easy paths,

 

for reminders that we cannot parent in our own strength, how deep and how desperate we all are for
His grace and wisdom,

For the hard days I'm learning to count as His mercies towards me,

that He never abandons me to a place of no growth

but sure and steady blazes the trail, leading me. I am counting it all joy in this thick forest of parenting that I find myself in, prayers and thanks on my lips.