Not Missing What's Missing

"my yoke is easy"

Matthew 11:30

Quiet day today, after a few busy ones.  The kids were with my folks for a lot of yesterday, helping them put up and decorate their tree, and then they all went shopping.  They brought the kids home in the evening, about the same time the Apple of my Eye got home from work.  Then he and my girl went to her volleyball practice, and the boy and I went out to dinner with my folks. 

It was a great dinner.  Just a mostly-pizza place around the corner, although this is the second time I've been there, and I've yet to eat their pizza.  Last time I had shrimp tacos, which were very good.  This time I ordered pot roast with mashed potatoes, and enjoyed it thoroughly.  Nothing better than comfort food on a cold evening, right?

Today, we had no reason to leave the house, so we stayed in our jammies a little longer than usual, and we dug in for a packed day of schooling.  Some days, like yesterday, are lighter, cuz I know my boy is not going to have time to do a lot of homework in the afternoon.  So then on a day like today, we need to do some catching up.  (My daughter sets her own schedule, and adjusts accordingly.)

There's other light days, besides Christmas-shopping days.  There are sick days and family-in-town days and Daddy-got-the-day-off-so-let's-skip-school days. 

Homeschooling is wonderfully flexible, after all.

A lot of those days we still do school, but I make it a little lighter for him.  Maybe more reading and less math.  That kind of thing.  But for the most part, I doubt my son notices all that much.  We don't do every subject every day, so if he realized a subject was missing, he'd probably just think it wasn't the day for it.  It's not very often he is appreciative for a light day.  He just accepts it and moves on with his life. 

And I don't mind that he doesn't notice.  It's not that I'm feeling that my thoughtfulness is under-appreciated or anything like that.  But it got me to thinking about times I'm that way with God.  You know, just not noticing.  "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away," after all.  But sometimes He blesses us by what He doesn't giveth. 

I had a vision once ~ not a spiritual, dreamlike circumstance, just an imagining ~ of my complaining to God about the difficulty of the path He had laid out for me, and I imagined Him saying in reply, "This is the easy path.  You should have seen the other path."

Sometimes the thing to be most thankful for is what's missing.  There is no clunking sound coming from my car's engine; no leak coming from my roof, and no blood coming from anyone I love.  And I'm thankful for every one of those things missing from my life.

~ "For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

The Lord will give grace and glory;

No good thing will He withhold

From those who walk uprightly." ~

Psalm 84:11

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