Thankful Thursday

A number of bloggers have theme days -- Meatless Monday for food blogs, Wordless Wednesday for people that have DSLR cameras and take amazing photos, Five Questions for Friday or Friday Faves -- I'm sure there are lots of other options that I haven't run across yet. 

I've decided to go with Thankful Thursday.  I love alliteration (maybe I should have said I adore alliteration) so Thankful Thursday appeals to me.  If I had that fab DSLR I could have picked Thirsty Thursday and taken pictures of luscious cocktails and included the recipes.  Perhaps another time.  : )  

I take a lot of things for granted, so Thankful Thursday will be an opportunity to consciously single out one thing each week for which I am especially thankful. 

You would think for the inaugural Thankful Thursday I would pick something monumental and profound, but you would be wrong.  Although I am immensely grateful for my parents, my husband and children, Jesus' love for me and His atoning sacrifice that paid for my sins, and so much more, on this first Thankful Thursday I am thankful for e-mail.

It is hard to remember how I navigated my life before the advent of personal computers and the internet.  When my oldest child left for college, I naturally wanted to keep in touch with her . . . every day.  I realized that it probably was unreasonable, and also uber-controlling, to expect her to call me on a daily basis.  But it wasn't asking too much (was it?) to ask her to shoot me a quick e-mail each day, just to let me know she was still alive. While I absolutely knew that my daughter was exactly where God wanted her to be, I wanted (needed) to know what she was doing in that God-appointed place.  Thankfully my daughter didn't have a problem with writing a brief e-mail filled with undoubtedly edited accounts of the minutiae of her college life.  Seven years later we still e-mail frequently, although no longer every day.

As my other children started college, they respectfully resisted my desire to keep in touch with a daily e-mail.  The intervening years have brought about increased technology, and cell phones are the preferred method of communication for these students.  One child will go for days at a time without a word and then there will be a phone call or a flurry of texts.  Another is more apt to call in between classes or text late at night.  The main thing is that there is communication.  I continue to e-mail them and they respond in the methods that they prefer.

When I think back to my own college experience, I don't know how my mother managed.  I called home once a week on Sunday evening and wrote letters every now and then.  She was basically in the dark as to what was going on in my life.  I'm sure she wondered, worried, and prayed a lot. 

I guess if I had to depend on my kids to make the time to write a letter, find a stamp, and then manage to mail it (without misplacing it in their dorm room or losing it on the way to the mailbox), I probably would be as clueless as my mom was.  And conversely, if my kids had to rely on me to write them the old-fashioned way, they would probably be pretty out of the loop as well.

E-mail is so easy, so quick, so accessible -- and I am so thankful for it.  : )