Yesterday Scott and I spent all day getting ready for a very much anticipated Thanksgiving dinner with Scott's family. There would be 11 total people around the table to share a wonderful meal. Those coming included Scott's father, Randy, Scott's brothers, Justin, Nico and Christian, Nico's girlfriend Jess, Scott's Grandma Mary and Scott's Uncle Doug. Scott spent the day cooking and preparing the food while I cleaned up the house and tended to the Kennedy and Lexi. (Mackenzie was spending Thanksgiving with her dad.)
The week before I kept seeing a lot of Thanksgiving related TV shows where someone would say a prayer out loud before the meal. I just knew in my heart that this is something that I wanted to do before we all shared our meal. I brought the idea up to Scott and he said "That's fine, as long as you say it." I wasn't surprised by his answer at all. All day Wednesday into Thursday I prayed about it. Asking God to not let me chicken out and give me the right words to say. See, I've never said a prayer out loud in front of anyone before. And here I was going to do it for the first time in front of Scott's family. I know that most of them are believers. But it's been a hard year for some of the others since Harla past away. Their faith has been shaken severely and I think they may have given up hope that God still cares about them.
As dinner was close to being done and ready to be enjoyed my nerves started to get to me. But I kept hearing God telling me to do it. The world needs more prayer. I knew what I wanted to say, I had been rehearsing it all day. Right as dinner was coming out of the oven I called everyone into the living room. No one but Scott and I knew what was going to happen. They were quite surprised when I said that we were going to pray before we eat. (We had never done that before at a family gathering.) It was short prayer, I said how we were thankful for the opportunity for us all to be together to share a wonderful meal. That it's been a hard year as we were missing Harla but we knew that she was with us in spirit. It's been a great fall as Scott's brother Justin is back in our lives. I ended by saying that we were thankful for all that God is going to provide for us in the future.
Last night after everyone left and Scott and I reflected on the day he said that what I had said was very touching. He even noticed that some of his family had gotten teary eyed. Whew, I did it. You know what, when I finished a huge sense of peace came over me. God lead me through it and I can't wait for the next time I get to say a prayer out loud again.
