Missing Family

This time of year has been really hard for me since we moved overseas almost five years ago. I have so many memories with my family during the holidays and well now, they are on the other side of the ocean. Thanksgiving is particularly hard because it isn’t a holiday in my host country. I miss my family every day during this time of year, and while I am thinking about how much I miss them and what I could have, I miss out on new memories with people that are special to me and the fun I could have.

Where is the balance? Missing my family isn’t a bad thing, but letting that get in the way of other things is. How can we balance the two?

I have asked myself these questions over the past couple of months, and I found an answer the other day when I was reading my Bible. In Philippians 1:3-11, Paul talks about how he misses his brothers and sisters in Christ. In fact, in verse 8, he says that “God can testify how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” I think that from this verse and the verses that surround it, we can take two things away. First of all, it is okay to miss people we love, including other members of the church, and secondly, that God can help us through it. We can be honest with God. He wants to know how we feel, and we don’t need to be impersonal or guarded with Him. In fact, He already knows how we feel. He can be our refuge, our portion, and our strength. All we have to do is trust in Him and lean on Him. One way we can do that is by praying and pouring our hearts out to Him. He wants to know the real us.

In the first chapter of Philippians, the word “Rejoice” comes back often, in fact, it is a theme throughout the book. The first verse after the greeting says “ I thank my God every time that I remember you” (vs 3). The point I want to make is that maybe we should all try to not focus on ourselves and pout, but focus on the good things in our lives and new blessings that God has given us, and spending time and investing in the people around us that love us. They don’t have to be biologically related to be family, and more people care about you than you may realize. In fact, whenever we think about our family, we can thank God for them and the times that we have had with them. If we spend our time wondering what we would be doing with them and sulking because we wanted to be with them, we miss out on new memories. So this year, I put this into practice by inviting some of my national friends over to celebrate Thanksgiving with me. It went really well, we laughed a lot and had a blast!!!

We all have a lot to be thankful for, whether we realize it or not. What are some creative ways that you celebrate the holidays in a different country? We would love to hear from you guys! Feel free to contact us at tcktimes@gmail.com or leave a comment below!

I hope that you all have a great holiday season!

Bye for now,

Rose 🌹