This Thanksgiving Brian and I decided to join the masses of individuals and families who woke at drastic hours in the morning, the day after Thanksgiving, to head to the stores to spend money on those great deals that were suppose to be happening – and mostly were! Brian and I are not big shoppers, it is not like we decide to head to the mall to look around and hang out whenever we have free time. But there is just something about Black Friday that we enjoy 
Our babysitter arrived at 5:00 am and we were out the door by 5:30 with coffee travel mugs full and lots of anticipation for getting our shopping done and having fun doing it.  We were out until lunch time and the morning was really enjoyable.  There was the crazy long line at Circuit City where people were just waiting to get IN the store – we decided to not stop there! We shopped around Old Navy, Children’s Place, and Kohl’s finding all sorts of fun things. We took a break for Cinnabon and Starbucks and went in a few stores that were beyond our spending desires, just to look around. I saw a group of ladies wearing black T-shirts that had simple white letters on the front that said “Friday” obviously this Black Friday shopping is a tradition for them.  It was a great morning and I can’t wait to do it again next year!
So what was it that I learned about the Lord on Black Friday? I got to experience what I think He must feel in giving gifts just for the fun of it to His children! I found myself seeing things all over the place that my children would love, and many of them I wanted to buy just to see the joy on their faces. We bought a Dora doll for Isabelle and I think this thrilled me the most. We had already planned to buy the older girls American Girl Dolls and were not sure what to do for Isabelle. When I saw the Dora doll I knew we did not need to think about it any longer. Isabelle loves Dora! And she know loves her Dora doll. So while I was out shopping I got to thinking about how none of these gifts I was getting for my kids were they truly needing or could they not go with out, however I desired to give them to them for the sheer pleasure of my kids delight. Is that what God does for us? Does He give us things in our life just to see us in delight? Does He receive pleasure from my joy? I think He does!! Now how cool is that? I think it is pretty amazing!!
Then my second thought was do I show God my delight? Do I do a good job of thanking Him for the gifts He gives, especially the ones that are not truly needed. On Christmas evening Addie said to me “Mom, I could just never tell you how much in my heart I am thankful for my doll.” And that made it all worth it, having joy in her delight!
So I am striving to be actively thanking God for His gifts and delighting in Him!!
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Another BIG Celebration!! »« Family Fun With Christmas Gifts
Glad you had an enjoyable time to yourselves – but it makes me wonder – did your sitter charge extra for the EARLY arrival? – HA! And it really pleases me to see that you are now having as much fun being parents of your “4 VOWELS” as we did with YOU! Plus relating this to our child-like relationship to God is most appropriate. Thanks for sharing! Dad
