Ode To Joy

I’m grateful for my family.

Let me say that again.

I’m very, very thankful for each and every one of them.

I guess I don’t say it out loud often enough. Maybe I can’t, due to the way I almost always beat about the bush about things like this, which results in the people I’m trying to talk to tell me to shut up and leave them alone.

I hope that it’s not this way here, where I feel like I’m speaking into the lonely vacuum of the digital universe.

Who’s going to read this?

It’s kind of like a private journal open to the public.

To the few who actually care enough to come back once in a while: thanks so much for bearing with me this long. You make this blog worthwhile to write and spend time building.

Anyways—back to the main topic of this post. My family.

I thank God for them. For so many reasons. I would not be who I am today without those nine individuals standing around and living in the same house with me. Every day, little things they say and do remind me once again how blessed I am to have such a family to grow, laugh, and live with. (We never cried together. Maybe once, when our sheep died. But if memory serves me right, we all cried at the same time, separately. But I digress.)

Thankful for the little things…

Like the way Dad would go out of his way to bring me my favorite newspapers and magazines when he comes home from work. Like the way my parents and siblings notify me of any slippery surfaces where I might slip and sprain my knee(still in recovery, which is pretty frustrating, which makes those warnings so much more important and appreciated). Like how my mother would stop whatever she’s doing, sit down, and look me in the eyes when I have something serious or even just semi-serious to talk to her about. Like the way my eldest sister understands me more than anyone else in the world, and would bluntly state something to my face that I would not be able to take from other people. Like how a certain sensible sister I have would write me notes to remind me of chores and household stuff I might have overlooked that day. Like how another sister would ask me questions about love, life, and God that she’s struggling with. Yet another sister would share some of her newest baked creations with me before dinner. Like how my little brother would call me over, tell me he’s learned a new song on the piano, and proceed to play it for me. His smiles afterward are priceless. 🙂

And that’s just one tiny peek into why I’m so, so grateful for my family.

How precious life is–even normal, “boring” life! And how blessed it is to live life with a family that actually cares about and loves you.

To my siblings and parents who might happen to be reading this: I love you, and thank God for you every day. More than once every day, actually.

I’m sorry that, for various reasons, I can’t tell you this face to face, but I treasure our relationships, our shared experiences, and our life together more than anything else in the world other than God, His Word, and His salvation.

Thanks for being who you are, and who each of you have been to me and will ever be. May God bless you and keep you safe, dear father, mother, sisters, and brothers. 🙂