from Kimberly Mitchel
Director of Christian Education
When I was a little girl, I never knew we didn’t have money. A lot of my clothes were second hand. Many of my toys came from yard sales, and my mother often went without a new pair of shoes so that we would have some.
Funny, I never knew. Not because my parents withheld the information from me or tried to hide the fact that we didn’t have much money, but because our simple way of life was very full!
When I came home from school, the cookies on the counter were homemade and not store bought. I didn’t take lots of lessons in gymnastics because I had backyard trees to climb. I never wondered about extra-curricular activities because I lived in the woods and had lots of kids around who played baseball with me and fished in the ponds and went to the beach for picnics and hikes. I never thought that higher education was a choice because we were always learning. I just expected to always continue that learning wherever I went. There was so much to learn from our wild world and from each other!We had family night once a week and played games, made cookies or watched Wild America, Disney and Lassie as a family.
My childhood was meaningful. I learned and loved and connected.
When we had the big snow on Dec 19, 2009, I saw our neighbors for the first time! It was sad to recognize that I don’t really even know them!
Our world has changed from an outdoor world to an indoor world. Have you noticed that?
People used to sit on their front porches and visit, now they are inside on their computers. They used to be outside doing more yard work, now they are buying houses that have no yards.
Where are the opportunities to savor the simpler life? To form lasting wonderful relationships? Where have the pickup baseball games gone, kids who know how to climb trees and make houses together underneath them with pine needles. Where have the simple visits with neighbors in the back yard gone, or visits with friends on the front porch? How about family time on Sunday nights?
Life is too short, friends, to be trapped inside the house, fingers glued to a laptop, or to sit watching dreadful shows on TV about nothing important, or to clutch a blackberry or cell phone as if it were a long lost love.
It is the New Year. I challenge you to change this rat race: Enjoy your children since they are only small for a very short time. Enjoy your grandchildren as they find their way in this interesting world. Form relationships with neighbors and friends because you need each other. Serve God with your hearts and hands and minds instead of spending time trapped with mindless electronics.
Simply follow Jesus!