Going Home

Okay, believe it or not, my New Year's resolution is to blog more. I'm aiming for 2-3 times a week not counting Friday Fives. So, here is the first installment.

I am reading Jan Karon's Home to Holly Springs (a Christmas gift from manBoy). It is her latest book featuring Father Timothy Kavanagh, but it is not set in Mitford. In this book Father Kavanagh returns to his home town after 38 years away. He learns a great deal about his childhood and deals with some of his baggage and ghosts. This book is "heavier" than the Mitford books, but it is good.

I had my own homecoming last week. We spent a few days in my home town last week. I preached at my mom's little church on the 23rd. It was a small group, but the Spirit was there. I will be preaching there each Sunday in January while their pastor goes through chemotherapy.

None of my family lives in my childhood home. It was sold when my parents divorced during my college years. But never the less, we had family together and that made it home. I baked Christmas cookies and Cranberry Glazed Pork Roast from a Friday Five recipes.

We attended Christmas Eve services in the church I where grew up from age 3 to age 25. Gifted & Talented and I were married in that church. We left when G & T was transferred to the big city.

Being in that old familiar sanctuary was a John Wesley type of "heart warming" experience. I was surprised at the sense of good memories I had there. Not specific memories, more of a pleasant nostalgia. You see, my childhood memories are not on the whole happy. But in the last year or so, I have been finding more and more good to remember. It seems I am able to move past the painful parts and recognize the good that also happened.

God of Love, Thank you for the healing you have brought about in my life. Thank you for showing me the good memories mixed in with the difficulties. Let this new stage emotional health enable me to serve you more. Amen.