I sit here this Sunday evening feeling very thankful.  Thanksgiving came and went with way too much family drama.  However, I am so thankful that I was not a contributing part of it.  I have learned in my life that keeping my mouth shut, is much more valuable than opening it.  In fact, I am getting much better at it as I age. I got to teach Sunday School this morning, I am in charge of "games".  We played several games, all focused on the promises of God.  God never breaks his promises.  As humans, we have a tendency to break promises, even though that was never our intent. It is funny, the other thing I am getting really good at is apologizing. When God first put it upon my heart to apologize to co-workers who had been just nasty to me throughout the years, I was like - WHAT? "They need to apologize to me, they have been so nasty to me".  God put upon my heart that even though they had been nasty and hateful and hurtful that it was my duty as a Christian to apologize first to them.  I have to admit, when they were nasty to me, I got nasty right back.  Most recently, God put it upon my heart to apologize to one of my former employers.  This employer basically had me in tears at least once a week.  Of course, as usual, when she was nasty to me, I got nasty right back.  And so, with all of the strength that God gave me (could never have done it on my own), I called her up and apologized.  Funny, every time I have apologized to someone who has been horrible to me, they cannot seem to say "I forgive you". I wonder what that is about? ? ? . . . . . Maybe they are too busy thinking, "should I apologize too?" Maybe they are thinking, has she lost her marbles. LOL!  At any rate, every time I apologize to someone who is clearly lost in this world, God gives me a peace about it.  It's like well - Deb - you did your part, the rest is between them and God.  And it is, like family drama and conflict, each person feels that they have been wronged.  It is likely that each one has at one time or another over the course of several years.  At any rate, if even one person thought, "yeah, they have been horrible to me my entire life, but you know, I will apologize and the rest is between them and God." I wonder what our Christmas family get together would be like.  Hmmmmmm.