This is the day to get the hard feelings out on the table, the ones with which you have wrestled for so long.
Your delicious Thanksgiving table should not be serving up these hard feelings in an undercurrent of hurt, stony silence, and/or pointed digs and barbs. God, from His seat at your table, is sure to notice even if others do not.
Hard feelings + God = Solution
Simply tell Him--today--how you feel about your extended family member, what he/she did to you, how you have tried to love in spite of the mistreatment you have endured, how you are dreading his/her arrival.
He will listen and gently invite you to hand over those hard feelings for Him to carry.
You will be free to enjoy this person with new heart and new eyes.
Beware: the space your heart had filled with these hard feelings will need to be occupied by something. Ask God to fill it with new love for this person and a safeguard in place that keeps you from traveling backwards, into the trap of hard feelings once again.
Once the hard feelings table is wiped clean, you are ready to fill it with the blessings and bounty of people you hold dear and food you love.
I'm pretty sure God will love His seat at this table.
