Thanksgiving Blessings---from our family to yours!

(This is the Thanksgiving letter I sent out to our family and friends on our mailing list, but since I don't have the addresses of all my blog readers, I thought I would post it here too. Thanksgiving Blessings be upon all of you!!!)

Our family wishes you a happy and holy Thanksgiving holiday!  Many of you already know that the Lord blessed our family with a new home this past year—thank you again to those of you who helped us pray our way into this new home!  Our hearts are still overflowing with thanksgiving for the gift of this home and the acres of wilderness that our boys are now able to explore.  God feels so near as we look around our property and see all of His creation surrounding us—the grove of colorful aspens amidst the pines, the deer we sometimes feed by hand, the array of birds (even owls!) who take baths in our pond, the wild turkey (named “Jake”) who sleeps in a Ponderosa tree in our backyard… It’s all a gift—just like God’s grace—which we do not deserve but that He gives us out of His goodness and love.

I almost hesitate to share our abundant blessings because some people may look at our home and our family photo and think that our life seems “picture-perfect.”  Allow me to quickly dispel that false notion of perfection.  Yes, God has been good to us and He is perfect, but no, our family is not perfect.  I could give a litany of our imperfections—marital tiffs, bickering boys, sins that outnumber the pine cones on our property, and times of intense darkness—but we’ve always held on to HOPE.  The reason we have for our hope is JESUS—His love, His strength, His saving grace—all of which helps us weather any storm that this world sends our way.

So this Thanksgiving season, we would like to leave you with a message of hope.  We want you to know that no matter what storm you may be going through right now or what storm you may have to face in the future, Jesus is there to help you take the next right step or to carry you if you can’t even take another step.  Just trust in His merciful love, which is far bigger than any of our sins, and cling to the hope that heaven awaits those who believe and persevere to the end.  And then go out and share that hope with the world!!!

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.

Always be prepared to give an answer

to everyone who asks you to give the reason

for the hope that you have.”

1 Peter 3:15

Love from our imperfect family, striving to be a “Totus Tuus” family,