Depressed & Dreading the Holidays

Ever felt depressed and dreading a holiday? I was. Only one of my sons was going to be in town and he let me know he would not be seeing us on Thanksgiving Day because he’d be spending it with friends. All of my other friends failed to invite me to visit with them on T-Day. So I was warming up to a great pity party and letting God know about it too!

Then I got a great idea … we just won’t be home on Thanksgiving. We could go to El Paso, or Albuquerque, or Carlsbad, or whatever. I told (yes … told) Larry that I was NOT going to be staying home … in fact didn’t even want to be home for Thanksgiving Day. He asked me what I wanted to do … and I was like “I don’t know … I just don’t want to be here when no one else is here.” Then he says, “So I’m not someone?” Well, not really he’s part of me, so that doesn’t count. Anyways, the Gospel Rescue Mission came up and he suggested we try to serve there. I called in and got on the list … yes in Las Cruces you have to get on the list if you want to help out because it’s a popular thing to do on Thanksgiving. Then two other of my friends asked us to drop by when we were done at the mission. Score!

So we went to the mission helped and it was great. There wasn’t a lot to do because many hands make light work ^_^. While we were there we ran into our new friend Kory. He just got stationed out at Holloman AFB and since he couldn’t go home for the holiday he looked up a place where he could make himself useful. Then my son’s plans got cancelled and he showed up at the mission with another friend of his and so we were really enjoying the visiting. Then we all split up to visit different friends and then reconnected at another friends, then ended up at our house to play cards and visit some more.

When the Israelites had just left Egypt, and during the 40 years that they wandered around, there were times that they had genuine needs so they complained & grumbled. Nevertheless many times God just provided for them even in the midst of their complaining.

So while I was looking forward to a very bleak holiday and feeling sorry for myself and complaining, God provided a great time of fellowship and sharing with my son, our new friend Kory, and my friends Yvonne and Mari. We had three Thanksgiving meals and I didn’t cook anything! But God provided abundantly above and beyond what I couldn’t even imagined. What a wonderful Thanksgiving we had.

Isn’t it great how He’s so good like that? Providing what we need physically & mentally & emotionally even on holidays. I pray that you will be able to look forward to the Christmas holidays, look forward to it as an opportunity to serve Him and an opportunity to give thanks for all that He has done and is still doing in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Thank God that He is the reason for the season.