I’ve tried to think about what I wanted to write about Thanksgiving this year. But 2020 has been a year of absolute craziness. My year started off rough with some sickness that just led into the whole COVID pandemic. Our Thanksgiving this year is like a lot of everyone else’s, different. Some people’s Thanksgiving is different in a good way and for some, not so much.

This year is just different. Normally we go to Cumberland Falls to enjoy Thanksgiving there and walk down to the falls. Misty and the boys normally go down to a beach area and write the year in the sand while the boys squat behind it while Misty takes their picture. And of course, there was parade watching, football watching and all of us watching my brother take a picture of dad after dinner sleeping in his recliner.

Thanksgiving was just not complete until he got that picture. Which typically occurred about 5 minutes from coming home. 🙂

But not 2020. A good friend of mine lost his mom to COVID so his Thanksgiving is different. A former boss of mine passed away this year, so his family’s Thanksgiving will be different.

Scrolling through social media today and see how everyone is adjusting to Thanksgiving in 2020. I don’t know, but it feels like Thanksgiving is really the first big adjustment for everyone during the pandemic. Yeah, everyone has had to pivot in one way or another. Working from home. School from home. Shutdowns that impact everyone but for some reason to me, Thanksgiving is just so much more different.

2020 is just different.

It’s easy to think 2020 is just a horrible year that we all want to go away and I think that a lot. But I guess we all have something to be thankful for and I am trying to focus on that.

But it’s hard.

Thanksgiving growing up was always our family’s holiday.

Christmas was nice but growing up in a family that owned a couple of retail businesses, Christmas was always a busy time. So Christmas morning was a time to rest and relax from the shopping chaos. And there was always the day after Christmas which was also busy, so you only had the day to recover.

Easter was always meeting with my dad’s family at the local cafeteria and standing in line for an hour or so to get your food and eat.

But Thanksgiving was just ours.

Mom would cook a big dinner. We would open our house to family that didn’t have Thanksgiving. But it was still ours. It was the one meal of the year that we ate at the dining room table and not the kitchen table. It was a tight fit sometimes but it was fun.
I think the only time in I don’t know long other than this year that I didn’t have Thanksgiving with my parents was one of the years I was traveling with Women’s Basketball at EKU. We were playing in Georgia over the weekend and had to be on the road on Thanksgiving to be there on time. Thanksgiving dinner that year was the Thanksgiving buffet at a Shoneys.

So I am trying to focus on the fact that I still have my parents. Hopefully, this mess will go away and my family can get together for Thanksgiving next year at Cumberland Falls. Misty and boys can write 2021 in the sand. Misty and I can get our picture taken in front of the big tree in the lobby.

So be thankful for all you have this year and I’ll leave you with terrible tragedy at the Pinedale Shopping Mall in 1978. 

As most churches, our church had its first online service due to most churches not being able to have services due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Our pastor was talking about how the virus has canceled so many things, sporting events, bars, entertainment venues and so on and so on. He mentioned how so many of these things are almost gods to people.

People think their child is the greatest athlete in the world and put them on every travel team they can find. They think there is no one like their kid and if you say anything about them, then you better watch out. Others will worship their college team or their favorite pro team and will go to any length to watch them or will fight anyone that says anything about their team.

We have our favorite athletes and we buy jerseys with their names on it and if they promote something, we buy it.

People will watch every movie put out by some movie star and read everything they can about them. There are tv shows that do nothing but follow movie stars around and document everything they do and everyone they date. And their fans just can’t get enough.

People will clear their calendars to make sure their weekends are free for bar hopping. Their night light is their real life.

The plague is removing the gods from people’s lives. And this is not the first time that a plague has removed a god form someone’s life. Or as in the Egyptians case, multiple plagues.

So this is what the Lord says: “I will show you that I am the Lord.” Look! I will strike the water of the Nile with this staff in my hand, and the river will turn to blood. The fish in it will die, and the river will stink. The Egyptians will not be able to drink any water from the Nile.’”
-Exodus 7:17-18 (NLT)

The plagues that God brought upon Egypt attacked their gods.

Hapi- Egyptian God of the Nile. Egypt thought this god was their water bearer. God removed this god for seven days as the Nile flowed nothing but blood.

Heket- Egyptian Goddess of Fertility, Water, Renewal. The god had the head of a frog. God brought frogs from everywhere and they were everywhere. Houses, beds and even palaces. Even though the magicians of Pharoh brought more frogs from the water, only God removed them.

Geb- Egyptian God of the Earth. This god was over the dust of the earth. God brought lice from the dust.

Ra- The Sun God. So, God brought darkness for three days. There was so much darkness that people were able to physically able to feel it.

There were several other plagues and all of them was an attack on a god.

Kind of like today and COVID-19.

Have we stopped to think about what God might be telling us? Is your family having dinner together more? For us, Colby is not working right now so he’s home for dinner every night. We have been playing games every night also. More family time.

The weather is warming up so we fired up the fire pit the other night and fired up the grill as well.

Maybe we should look at what the gods in our lives that have been removed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. What god has been removed or needs to be removed?

Maybe we should all take a look at what we are getting from this. Yes, quarantine is not fun. Yes, this virus can be deadly and we need to take is seriously but we can take advantage of the time we get with family.

Well, it’s time to knock the dust off the blog and get back to writing some. It’s been a little over a year now since I’ve posted anything. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve not posted in a long time but I’m hoping 2019 will be different. I hope to write more and I hope to read more. Over the last couple of years, Goodreads.com has had a reading challenge where you set a goal of how many books you want to read that year and it tracks how many you have read. For the last three years, I have set a goal of 20 books. In 2016 I read 16 books and in 2017 I read 17. 2018, however, was not a good year. I only managed to hit 9. So I want to blow that away this year and reach 20.

Dave Ramsey says that the average millionaire reads 1 non-fiction book a month. Not that I am going to become a millionaire but if you want to be one, you should act like one. Plus reading is just good for you anyway. 🙂

Some of the books that are on my list for this year.

1. Soar – T.D. Jakes (currently reading already)
2. Finish – Jon Acuff
3. Leaders Eat Last – Simon Sinek
4. Strategize to Win – Carla Harris
5. Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 – John C. Maxwell
6. The Power of Your Potential – John C. Maxwell
7. How to Lead When You are Not in Charge – Clay Scroggins
8. Tribes – Seth Godin
9. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook – BY Gary Vaynerchuk
10. Retire Inspired – Chris Hogan

I got most of these at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Conference so I need to have them finished so I can buy more at this year’s conference. I’ll throw in some fiction books as well like some Tom Clancy and Vince Flynn.

Reading more is not the only goal I have for 2019.

• I want to increase my side hustle of website design and maintenance. If you have or need a website, give me a shout.
• Get better focused, again, on my weight. I have gone almost 9 months with no sodas or sweet tea. Now to cut back on sweets.

2019 will also include some traveling as Colby will start doing some college visits. We know of one for sure, Johnson University, and maybe a second in Missouri, Ozark Christian College. I am also planning on going to St Louis in November for WordCamp US and maybe Dayton in March for WordCamp Dayton. Still waiting on the schedule of speakers for Dayton.

So 2019 looks to be another busy year, but it’s all good.