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More and more I’m finding that those moments, the ones that make you stop and just want to soak it all in, are not the choreographed, Hallmark moments we try to manufacture, but those little moments that no one will ever see or hear about, but that will “ping” at your heart every time you think of them from now until eternity.
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I had one of those moments yesterday.
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Corey’s been working on his car, what we affectionately refer to as “Daddy’s Junker” (actually, I started calling it that this summer when I had to drive the UN-air conditioned beast. I was just learning that a 2-and-a-half-year-old will repeat just about anything we say and I must’ve called it that one too many times, because next thing I know Corey’s outside washing it and Jayden refers to it as “the Junker.” Corey asked him who he heard that from - and there I stood, BUSTED!). Anyway, Corey’s been working on it for the past few days and Jayden has been SO eager to be right there, as close to the action as he can get, “helping” fix it.
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So yesterday while the kids were napping Corey went into Stockton to pick up some things and Jayden was just getting up from his nap when Corey got home. We’d been telling Jayden he could “help” Daddy with the new alternator when he got one so Jayden was over the moon when he came home with the replacement one! I mean, this was the HIGHLIGHT of his day, his week, his month! He scurried into his room, fast as his little legs would carry him, and came out with his tool set, ready to work!
Notice Jayden's tool set. With these guys, and Daddy by his side, he can fix anything!
Notice the look of total concentration on Jayden's face. This is pretty serious stuff!
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I am telling you, this was just about the sweetest scene I have ever witnessed. Jayden approached the task at hand with total excitement, total seriousness. He had his tools out, he was banging away, and oh, the look of pure, childlike joy on his face. It was one of those moments where, and you’ll have to forgive me for being all sappy, but I just felt like everything went into slow motion and I just took in his P-U-R-E joy.
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That little picture, with father and son working side by side, made me stop and reflect on the many, many things in my life that I have to be thankful for. Things like:
*A husband who l-o-v-e-s his kids and who is a really great dad.
*A father-in-law who provided a great example of a loving father for my husband.
*A father and mother who are generous with everything they have, and not just in a material sense.
*A friend who is willing to meet for coffee at 9 pm, after I’ve put the kids down for the night, because she knows it’s the only time I have to get away.
*An unexpected card in the mail, making your day a little brighter just knowing that someone was thinking of you enough to actually write it down, address an envelope, apply a stamp and put it in the “snail mail.”
And the list goes on.
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These are hard times we’re living in. I don’t know how many people I know who are unemployed or facing unemployment, are fighting like crazy to keep their homes or their kids in Christian schools, are facing medical bills because their insurance ran out when they or their husbands lost their jobs, all that stuff you hear about on the evening news. But watching Corey with Jayden yesterday, I began to think about those little moments of joy that we experience in our lives, oftentimes without giving them much more than a passing thought.
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So in this season of Thanksgiving, I urge you to find those moments that take your breath away and slow down enough to take it in and breathe a prayer of thanks.
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After all, those are the moments that life (should be) measured by.
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