December ...2009....Families

As we leave the Thanksgiving holiday for another year and prepare and think of the Christmas season ahead it is quite natural to think of our many blessings....all the things we are grateful for. Both holidays are a time when we get together as family and enjoy each others company as we celebrate the reason for the season. For me, Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for the harvest of another year and to celebrate the beginning of this present great nation from the time of the pilgrims coming to America. We gather together to enjoy lifes bounties and pay tribute to our ancestors who labored before us to make our lives better. Christmas time we come together to celebrate the birth and life of Jesus Christ. There are not greater blessings in this life than to have a family to congregate with and enjoy these two very significant holidays. The love felt in family relationships is certainly one of lifes greatest blessings. Below are a few quotes that my daughter, Mindi, found and put in a book with pictures for Bob and I on our 50th wedding anniversary. They are special thoughts relating to family:

"A happy family is but an earlier heaven." George Bernard Shaw

"Call if a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." Jane Howard

"The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family." Thomas Jefferson

"Families are the compass that guide us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights and our comfort when we occasionally falter. " Brad Henry

"What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life...to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories." George Eliot

"You don't choose your family...They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." Desmond Tutu

"In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony." Eva Burrows

"A father's goodness is higher than the mountain, a mother's goodness deeper than the sea." Japanese Proverb

"No road is long with good company." Turkish Proverb

"Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end." Author unknown

"Families are like fudge...mostly sweet with a few nuts." Author unknown

I remember reading a story one time...I don't remember the title or the author, but I'm sure many of you have read it. It told of a family whose father and mother lived on a farm in the midwest. The children were grown adults and all living away from the family farm. This Christmas each one had already alerted the parents that because of work or other committments they wouldn't be able to come home for Christmas. Then as the day drew near each one felt badly that the parents would be home alone when it had always been such a great family get together. So each one unbeknown to the rest at the spur of the moment made arrangements to hurry home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to be with their parents. As Christmas Eve came...one by one the children showed up at the family farm. What joy was experienced and described as the family gathered to the surprise of the parents and each one that came.

Families are a work in progress. Each one has the responsibility to make the family ties stronger
...to show forth the love and concern over each other that help to draw the family together. This time of year is the perfect time to make our schedules include time for the family. To plan occasion for each one to come and be together and enjoy each others company. Usually it is the natural thing as is illustrated in the first story above...other times it takes an effort to draw the family together and make sure everyone is invited and feels the love of the other family members. I pray we will each have a joyous Christmas holiday with our families. With love, Maurine Winters