Memories

       It was a typical Sunday morning and we quickly got dressed to leave as time was shorter than we imagined.  We were visiting a friend’s church in celebration of his 50^th birthday, and so we arrived fully prepared… as requested by his wife.  Now, you might think that we dressed in the dark, or perhaps had our eyes closed at the time, but the reality is that we spent over an hour finding and choosing our outfits the night before.  This morning’s service was to be a plaid surprise, and of course, always wanting to do all things in excellence…  J  

(Okay, maybe I need to remove the space between ‘a’ and ‘typical’ lol )

       The purpose of the plaid was to bring a gift of laughter to my friend, but I think it went far deeper than that.  It gave him, his family, and all present a wonderful shared memory of a ‘moment in time’.  It was only a couple years ago I remember watching a video of a lady who said the most important thing for family is to make good memories with your loved ones.  She left a legacy of great memories with her children and grandchildren when she passed.  I try to remember her wise advice.

       I think sometimes as our children get older and schedules become harder to plan around, it becomes more difficult to make those memories.  Parental employment, tasks at home and volunteering, whether in church ministries or community programs, along with our kid’s schooling, sports, jobs, ministries and youth, it becomes a challenge to find family time; but it is surely worth it, and I believe it is vital for our kids at any age.  Those enjoyable memories won’t happen without effort on our part.

Consider these scriptures:

Ps. 126:2- Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

Ecc. 3:4- A time to weep, and a time to laugh;… 
Pr. 17:22- A joyful heart is good medicine,…

Job 8:21- He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.   ESV

       Can you imagine anyone wanting to be part of a group of people who experience no joy and laughter?  “Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you” hard work with no laughter and joy? (Matt. 11:28)  Most certainly not!   The Lord Jesus Christ came to give us life and in that, abundant life (John 10:10), not just totally boring, solemn hours of labour.  It certainly wouldn’t attract me and His desire is to draw us to Him.  So let us all try to make great memories with our loved ones filled with the Lord, laughter and joy. 

       Let us also remember our brothers and sisters in the Lord are loved ones as well.  We should build good memories with them also, both in and out of church ministry, and maybe, just maybe, we might find out we have some truly great people by our side.