\ˈgra-tə-ˌtüd, -ˌtyüd\
The quality of being thankful: readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.
Hello Friends! We’re at week 8 of my Gratitude Project this year.
First off, a number of you asked about our friend I photographed last week, wanting to know what books he's written. He’s authored or co-authored several, so I thought I’d just link his ministry website. It’s called VantagePoint3. He’s developed curriculum for Churches that focusses on fostering depth, renewal and discipleship. The 3 curriculums are called The Journey, A Way of Life and Walking with Others. I can’t say enough about his work with these studies. I’ve been through The Journey twice with groups and it’s been very impacting for each person who has been in them, life changing questions, amazing learning and deeper relationships. He’s also written a couple of books on mentoring called Deep Mentoring and Spiritual Mentoring, if you’re interested you can find them on his site.
OK...on to week 8. This week I’m focussing on Friday Nights in my family. Each week whenever possible, my parents have all of us over to their house for Friday night supper. My brother, my sister-in-law and my niece and nephew and our family of five gather together for an abundance of food and conversation. My mom always outdoes herself. Why have one salad when you can have two? Why have one dessert when you can have two....and so on.
After supper the kids always have some sort of fun that can include mini-sticks hockey, Star Wars, hide and seek, fort-building, colouring or something else that’s a good time. This week my mom had been cleaning and found my old Holly Hobbie china Tea Set that had been packed away. I have many fun memories of tea parties I had, and our daughter now 19 remembers playing with it as a little girl too. So the girl cousins started out having a tea party with brownies and juice that served as pretend tea, they were so cute.
Photos are not newsworthy - they’re just with my iPhone, but I didn’t want to miss capturing the moments. af OKonement of fostering depth and renewal and service in the Church through the discipleship of othefosrs as Christian leaders
"First you clink, and then you drink” (Despicable Me)
Then the boys wandered upstairs to see what all the fuss was about. They decided to join the Tea Party too!
My little nephew was so cute pretending the tea was hot, slurping it noisily.
“First you clink, and then you drink”.
What am I grateful for about this? Our kids are quite spread apart in age from their little cousins, and yet Friday’s are a huge highlight for them. They patiently and lovingly play whatever it is their little cousins desire, with such joy and enthusiasm each week. There is always so much laughter and boundless energy. It does my heart so good to watch them enjoy their cousins and to see what it means to my little niece and nephew that we love so much. I’m so grateful to see the relationships between the kids grow, and for my Mom and Dad each week to selflessly provide a place where we can gather and eat all our favourite things together and enjoy each other. I don’t want to take that for granted.
Those sweet places of gathering and sharing hospitality around a table are the building blocks to deeper relationship. That’s a great deal to be grateful for!
1 comment:
Oh, Christine, what a beautiful post and wonderful photos. Yes, I can see why you are grateful for your family and all the relationships across the generations and age gaps. How precious it is to see them grow up and together. Yes, precious memories are being made, remembered of old and repeated. And what a blessing for your parents to host these gatherings so you all stay close and fellowship. Thank you for sharing this one. I've missed some of them and have read others and not commented. But I love your Gratitude Project. Hugs, sweet friend, and have a blessed Lord's Day!
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