A Month of Thankfulness – It’s Show Week!

A Month of Thankfulness – It’s Show Week!

Like many of you, our family is looking forward to Thanksgiving break next week. The anticipation of sleeping in, spending time with family, and eating turkey and all the fixings is starting to fill our minds. Our mouths are salivating, and our stomachs ache from the prospect of foods to come!

There is just one little thing that is standing in our way.

Show week.

Our oldest son has been involved in both the high school fall and spring productions since his freshman year. He’s been a Winkie and Munchkin in the “Wizard of Oz,” a farmhand in “Oklahoma,” Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol,” King Triton in the “Little Mermaid,” and now Otis in “Horizons of Gold.”

What some people don’t understand is that these productions are not your typical high school productions. These are plays on steroids, times three! People travel from miles around to come and see the cast and crew pour out their heart and souls on the stage. Our fantastic cast director, Debbie, loves on these students as if they were her own. Her children graduated a few years ago, and while most people would have left when their children did, she stayed because of her love for the theater and our children.

The stage that our students perform on is a small stage in a gym.  The seating for the patrons is on hard metal chairs, cramped and uncomfortable. So while the stage is small, the room is tight, and the budget limited, no one notices because they are so grateful for what they have. The set designer, Larry, can take a box of toothpicks and create a useful prop out of it. Every set is carefully designed by this man who volunteers hours of his own time to create something that will be remembered for years to come – and is 95% recycled from the previous show.

Grateful for Things I Take for Granted

As I was in prayer for this week, my mind wandered to the many things that need to be accomplished, and the grumbling began. Laundry, running errands, cleaning the house, getting groceries, figuring out our meals during this crazy week, laundry (yes, that’s listed again – I live with teenagers, remember?), and getting everyone where they need to be.

On the November 11 entry in her devotion, Jesus Always, author Sarah Young defines thankfulness as, “a grateful attitude for what you already have.”

And a grateful attitude is precisely what I need to have during this week and every week for that matter.

I am grateful for:

• Laundry = we have clothes to wear.
• Running errands = we have a reliable vehicle to get us where we need to be.
• Grocery shopping = we have the money to provide food for our family.
• Cooking = we have food to eat.
• House to clean = we have a roof over our heads.
• A Savior who loves us = eternal life with Him!

So, during this crazy, busy week, I am going to turn my grumblings into gratitude.

Please be in prayer for the cast and crew of “Horizons of Gold” this week.  The enemy always works overtime and tries his hardest to bring everyone down this particular week. Each and every one of the productions brings glory to the Lord, and with your prayers, nothing will stop that!