Sometimes I look in the mirror and I am shocked at the guy staring back at me. No, I don’t scare myself. I just don’t recognize who i see sometimes. I like the guy in the mirror. He is just an older, more mature version of what I expect. Sometimes, he’s not what I expect at all. Let me explain.

For a long time I have had a mental picture of myself. Several actually. From time to time I must be in one of those mind frames, because when I look in the mirror I expect to see myself that way. It is like I temporarily forget how far I have come. I have come a long way…

I grew up in small town USA…also known as several towns across the southern part of Oklahoma. I was never an athletic kid. I was a bit chunky and unsure of myself. To this day I carry a mental image of myself from some of the school photographs that were taken in elementary school. I don’t guess I ever told my mom when photo day was going to be as I showed up for one photo shoot in a blue sweatsuit and another time I showed up in a sleeveless shirt.

When I was 12 we moved to a new town and I remember feeling glad that we were starting over at a new place. I remember wanting to be different than I was. It didn’t take long in our new town and I looked like a different guy. Granted, I was 12 and hit my first major growth spurt…I went from 5’4” to 5’9” or so in one summer. I was no longer a chunky kid. I was a lanky kid who took a while to get used to his body.

As I got into high school, my self image got a huge boost. It was the 90’s and I had a huge pair of glasses and a chili bowl haircut, but I was starting to be more comfortable in my own skin. I started getting girlfriends sometime in this stretch too. That was a confidence booster as well. By my senior year I was 6 feet tall and in the best shape of my life to that point. I remember graduating high school feeling ready to take on the world.

I can think over several snapshots like this from over the years. I see myself clearly in college trying to come to grips with what I wanted to do with my life. Did I really want to be a choir teacher? Noble profession, but not for me. Incidentally, thank God I didn’t have to have it all figured out at that point. I remember the pressure of feeling like I was getting it wrong. I was, but I had time.

I remember meeting my beautiful bride for the first time and the way I felt when I realized that I had found the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. It was so awesome and so strange to see myself as an adult who was making a lifelong vow to love and care for someone else. It is a decision that I give my all to to this day.

I remember the way I felt when my boy was born and he was put into my arms for the first time. His mama had just been through so many hours of labor and I remember the feeling of knowing I was there to take care of her and our precious baby boy.

I have stared at the man in the mirror so many times through this life. At different times I can see one of the versions of myself staring back. I am amazed at how far I have come. I have come through ups and downs, good times and bad, health and sickness…by the grace of God I am still here. I am thankful. I don’t always recognize the man in the mirror, but that’s ok. I’m still enjoying getting to know him.

There once was a man whose heart was full of love, but his arms were empty. With the man there was a woman whose heart longed to hold a child of her very own. Together they prayed and they waited, but no child would come to be their own. Their hearts were sad.

Then one day the woman said to the man, “We have waited a long time for a child of our own. What if there is a child out there longing for a parent to come to them?”The man said to her, “This is what we have been waiting for!” And their hearts began to hope.

 So the man and the woman set out on a journey to find their precious child. They looked high and they looked low, around every corner and over every hill. They searched for miles and miles. In every direction they searched. They were certain they would find a child of their own.

The journey was long and hard and at times it seemed that all hope was lost, but they pressed on for they knew that somewhere a child was waiting just for them. So they pushed forward. It did not matter the cost. It did not matter the distance.They would soon have another member of their family.

One day, quite suddenly, their search was over for a child had appeared. The day had finally come. Their dreams were about to come true. A little girl walked slowly toward them, her brown hair blowing in the wind. She looked them over and over again.

“Are you my new mom and dad?” the little girl asked. “Will you take me home and love me? Will I have a family at last? Will you love me as your very own?”

With tears in his eyes, the man held his arms wide open. The woman cried tears of joy as well. The child their hearts had longed for became their daughter and she is to this very day.

The man’s arms were no longer empty. The woman’s heart was free to love.The child had found her family and their hearts were glad. The child who was once without a family is now…adopted.

 

It is amazing to me how the smallest things can trigger deep feelings. I am sitting on an airplane not long go, waiting for my flight to land so I could get on with my day. While sitting there trying to relax (and not have my arms bumped by flight attendants walking by), I looked down at my shirt and caught a flicker of something light colored on my shirt.

On closer examination I realized I had a blonde hair stuck to my shirt. Obviously it isn’t mine as God has blessed me with a hair full of brown and grey. As I pulled it from my shirt I smiled from ear to ear. It belongs to the one I love the most. The one that I am eager to get back home to see. It is a reminder of my best friend.

This is a fairly common occurrence. I frequently find her hair on me as I go throughout my day. It is an awesome reminder of who she is and how much she means to me. I am so crazy in love with her. She has beautiful hair too. Let me not forget to mention that.

I especially love when I am driving with her in the car with the windows down. Invariably I end up with her hair on me from it bowing in the wind. I even end up with her hair on me days after she has been in my car. It is just waiting there for me to catch me off guard and remind me how thankful I am to be hers…and that she is mine.

It really is the small things that make me happy. I never would have thought it, but I am so glad for those times where little reminders of her catch me off guard.

What are the small things in your life that bring you joy? Are there things that you love now that you never expected to?

Verse 1

Sitting in the back of the chapel, hid where no one sees. It is hard to take in what’s happening in front of me.You look just like an angel standing in your dress. I’m here speechless, I have to confess. Because I am not dressed in my tux, standing next to you and some other guy will go with you on our honeymoon.

Chorus

It is all my fault that you chose not to stay and it has never been more clear than it is today. I have watched you all this while wearing that smile, and I die inside because You are the one that got away.

Verse 2

I wasn’t surprised the day you left though my heart was torn in two. It took a while to see that I was no good for you. I wish I could go back in time and be a different man, but sometimes its too late when you finally understand that you danced with an angel who had come down to earth and never took the time to really see her worth.

Chorus

It is all my fault that you chose not to stay and it has never been more clear than it is today. I have watched you all this while wearing that smile, and I die inside because You are the one that got away.

Tag

I am glad that he could give you what I could never give and I pray that you find happiness for as long as you live.

Chorus

It is all my fault that you chose not to stay and it has never been more clear than it is today. I have watched you all this while wearing that smile, and I die inside because You are the one that got away.

I don’t know about you, but I love Christmas traditions. For the most part. When they make sense. Do you know what I mean? Do you have Christmas traditions that you do every year? Do all of them make sense?

One tradition that we keep every year is decorating our house, usually sometime around Thanksgiving…this year it was two weeks before. We started years ago putting up the tree while having the movie White Christmas on as we decorated. When my boy arrived we added in the Polar Express after White Christmas, because we got more in the spirit and put up more decorations. It is a tradition I look forward to every year, because we make our home beautiful…with comfortable favorites playing on the TV.

Another tradition that we love is celebrating Christmas with some of our closest family friends. We started this several years ago where our two families get together every year to celebrate Christmas. When we all lived in same town, we celebrated for one long evening. Now that we live in different states, we all get together and we celebrate over one long weekend. That weekend just concluded. It was full of laughter, conversation, presents, mulled wine, Christmas Vacation, good food, memory making and so much more. It was so good to be with friends who are closer than family. This is a tradition I love.

What about traditions that have run their course? Our traditions supposed to last forever just because?What does Tradition mean?

Here is what I found:

Tradition – a custom or belief that has been passed on. A custom or widely accepted way of behaving or doing something that is specific to a society, place, or time.

Something that is specific to a society, place, or time. To me that means that some traditions are obviously passed on and observed for long periods. Others are only good for a specific amount of time. They are good until they run their course.

I used to go shopping on Black Friday. There was a lot of fun and deals to be had by going out early the morning after Thanksgiving. Then it became something that I no longer enjoyed. The store gimmicks got to be over the top and the crowds were a little crazy. I had planned to share it with my boy when he got old enough, but it changed. So, I pivoted. Black Friday was something I wanted to keep as a yearly thing, but it ran its course.

Marixa and I used to enjoy going to the mall on Christmas Eve every year. We would usually go get lunch, shop around a bit, and sit and people watch. It was always interesting to see families out enjoying the time with each other. You would also see the random frantic shoppers who apparently forgot that Christmas was on December 25th again and were cramming in all their shopping. This was a time that she and I enjoyed together, just soaking it all in. It was a good tradition. It fell to the wayside several years ago as it was crammed out by other things. We enjoyed it for the time.

To me, traditions are intended to keep us looking forward to being together. We do them to enjoy the season, enjoy each other, and to remember what is important. If there are traditions you keep that don’t fit those categories, maybe it is time to re-examine them.

I witnessed wonderful example this weekend of a good tradition in practice. The time brought good friends together to enjoy each other, to celebrate our friendships, and to joy in the season. In the words of Cousin Eddie…it was real nice Clark.