For the week of: Monday, July 16th 2007

"Celebrate"

I’ve been grinning while reading some articles about the importance of celebrations and I utter a resounding, “Amen and Amen!”

I LOVE parties – Christmas parties, slumber parties, Halloween parties, bridal parties, Easter parties, 4th of July parties, Valentine’s Day parties, retirement parties, parties for no reason except to have a party, and most definitely birthday parties.  I am a die-hard when it comes to birthday parties.  Everybody gets a birthday party in the family, like it or not, and there will be candles on a cake, the singing of Happy Birthday (only when the candles are all lit), reminiscing about memories of the birthday person that the birthday person would often just as soon forget and the birthday person always gets a balloon.   When my children are 50 years old, I’ll still be buying helium balloons for the birthday celebration; it’s just necessary.

However, not all celebrations have to be parties.  When was the last time you celebrated the sweet smell of your toddler after a bubble bath?  Or were you so tired and weary, you just wanted to get the little darling in bed and collapse in a heap on top of the unfolded laundry? 

What about the 60 second celebration of the first sniff of morning air as you delight in a new day filled with God’s mercies? 

Did you chat today, however briefly, with a great girlfriend?  What a reason for celebration – the blessing of a heart-to-heart friend. And if she’s a faith sister, you have reason for ecstatic celebration!

Try turning dinner prep into a celebration of shared time with your children.  Who cares if the salad has chunks of lettuce big enough to choke a giant?

 Let some lucky kiddo loose in the yard with a paper bag and tell her to collect 6 things that God made and use them in a bowl as a centerpiece for dinner, celebrating the God of creation.  (Word of caution…may want to stipulate that these things God made can’t be creepy crawlies.  It’s so doggone hard to eat your peas when you’re chasing a family of ants across the placemats.)

Serve the BLT sandwiches on paper plates decorated by your budding artist and celebrate his/her first “showing”. 

Celebrate Dad.  Men desperately want to know they are “good enough” for their wives and children.  Don’t limit celebrating Dad to Father’s Day.  Let each child write down or draw a picture of what they like to do with Dad and roll the papers up in scrolls, tie with a ribbon and place them on Dad’s plate before he gets to the dinner table. 

Celebrate a beautiful sunset.  Pop some popcorn, put drinks in a thermos and head to a spot where you can view the wonder of a gorgeous sunset and cheer at God’s masterpiece. 

Dear ones, it takes little effort to identify all of the grief and frustrations of life. Spend your energy instead on celebrating.

Celebrate the Word, celebrate the dawn, celebrate clean-smelling towels, celebrate a husband who puts his laundry down the chute…for the sake of the joy your heart needs to acknowledge and your family needs to witness as your legacy to them…celebrate life!

Party Hearty!

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