The Thanksgiving Surprise

The Thanksgiving Surprise

The Thanksgiving Surprise

 

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Food, football, family, and no presents!
 
We all want our kids to be grateful; hopefully you and I want to model gratitude. Lord knows we live in a culture that is very self absorbed, so we are constantly swimming upstream. Gina and I like doing a service project to focus our family on those less fortunate during the holiday season as well.
 
How was your Thanksgiving?
Did everything go as planned, or were there some surprises?
Did everybody get along or were there some tense moments at times?
 
One of the realities of life is even the best made plans sometimes go awry. But even when you have unmet expectations, look for the good in other people.
 
Bi-annual Turkey Trot

For example, we started a “bi-annual turkey trot” tradition in 2011. Got up early, my daughter and I went downtown Dallas with all the crazies. All our family wanted to go the next time, so in 2013 when time came around, they really wanted to sleep in more than get up and go run the turkey trot! In 2015 our family turkey trot had 4 people attend and we jogged. This year we expanded the turkey trot with more people but we decided to walk our dogs! Creating something new is important for blended families.

On Friday we served dinner at the homeless shelter for women and children. I’m so proud of our family that decided to give back to others. As we served dinner & interacted with some of the kids, you can’t help but feel like you are really receiving more than you are giving.

But the surprise came on Saturday! I went to Norman to watch OU play West Virginia. As I walked towards the stadium, I met this gentleman, a roofer, and his two children. He was holding a sign that many people see people do on a street corner. I was taken back that this was happening at a football game. I watched people stroll by, pretending not to see him, while others busily walked towards the stadium.
I walked up to him, “tell me your story.“ As he told me the story of getting laid off, a gentleman came up and gave us three tickets to sell. Because he spoke broken English I said, let me sell these tickets for you and I’ll give you the money. A couple approached me and I told their story saying let’s help them out. When I handed him the money, tears were in his eyes.
Gratitude… He was grateful.
But I’m the one that received more.
God did all of this.
 
How was your Thanksgiving?
 
Craig Morgan