I had the joy of getting to go back home this past weekend to see daddio and Alex. I just love them so much. Saturday night dad cooked his gourmet food for us and then we all cuddled up and watched some old home videos on the giant pull-down screen he has. I think I was reminded this weekend how much I am like my dad - actually, I am a perfectly blended hybrid between my mom and dad. My dad and I both sometimes have a hard time allowing ourselves to be known by people. But I like that he is way more extraverted and crazy than me. He is a total otter-lion. I think Alex is just pure otter.
We went to this church on Sunday called Fellowship of the Woodlands and I could just feel myself placing judgements on it before even going simply because it is large and televised. But the Lord humbled me alot. The teaching was really convicting. It was about tithing…and I have heard many sermons on this since I have come to know the Lord, but it was this time where it went straight to my heart and knocked the wind out of me. All of the children in the church had been saving their money for several weeks and 1/3 of them (which is still like a thousand) went up and joyfully gave their offerings before us. This went on for about 20 minutes - it was so powerful and humbling. The money I give back to God was given to me in the first place by Him and this is actually a very wise investment considering it is going toward furthering God’s kingdom. I had not actually realized this before yesterday.
My dad drove us after church to a place we could not have recognized because we had to close our eyes as we drove there. When I opened my eyes, I just saw all these buildings that looked like very large trailer homes. There were men of all ages sitting on the porches of these buildings smoking cigarettes and/or playing banjo…”So, where are we, kids??”, asks father…um, I don’t know, actually…but then I looked over and saw the three-story tree house my dad had built when I was a child. Then my heart sunk. We were at my childhood home…and the house was still there, but the 3 acres now supported extra buildings. My old house was now a half-way house for alcoholic men who have been sent away by their familes to get better and alcohol-free. I had to go in the house because this house was in my dream two nights prior. The man let me and I just felt so overwhelmed. This house was a huge deal because it was the last house we all lived in together before my parents divorced and mom died. It was the last house we lived in before mom started to go crazy. In the dream a few days ago, I went back into my room of this house and the closet was full of all my mom’s clothes. In the dream I ran to the closet and wrapped myself in all the hanging clothes and just cried for a long time because I miss her. When we were actually there visiting yesterday, I could not go into my room because a man was in there sleeping.
Something that broke my heart was the reality that the treehouse that I remember running miles and miles away out from the house to was only actually about 100 yards away from the house. When I was little I would run out there to be by myself and as a tiny child it seemed so freeing and like i would have to run forever to get there. It wasn’t the case. I did notice around the house were all these notes tacked to the wall that reminded us that God is in control of our lives and a real man carries the attributes of Christ. This was really cool to me. I am glad they are using the house to lead people to bring Hope to these precious men.
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I had the joy of getting to go back home this past weekend to see daddio and Alex. I just love them so much. Saturday night dad cooked his gourmet food for us and then we all cuddled up and watched some old home videos on the giant pull-down screen he has. I think I was reminded this weekend how much I am like my dad - actually, I am a perfectly blended hybrid between my mom and dad. My dad and I both sometimes have a hard time allowing ourselves to be known by people. But I like that he is way more extraverted and crazy than me. He is a total otter-lion. I think Alex is just pure otter.
We went to this church on Sunday called Fellowship of the Woodlands and I could just feel myself placing judgements on it before even going simply because it is large and televised. But the Lord humbled me alot. The teaching was really convicting. It was about tithing…and I have heard many sermons on this since I have come to know the Lord, but it was this time where it went straight to my heart and knocked the wind out of me. All of the children in the church had been saving their money for several weeks and 1/3 of them (which is still like a thousand) went up and joyfully gave their offerings before us. This went on for about 20 minutes - it was so powerful and humbling. The money I give back to God was given to me in the first place by Him and this is actually a very wise investment considering it is going toward furthering God’s kingdom. I had not actually realized this before yesterday.
My dad drove us after church to a place we could not have recognized because we had to close our eyes as we drove there. When I opened my eyes, I just saw all these buildings that looked like very large trailer homes. There were men of all ages sitting on the porches of these buildings smoking cigarettes and/or playing banjo…”So, where are we, kids??”, asks father…um, I don’t know, actually…but then I looked over and saw the three-story tree house my dad had built when I was a child. Then my heart sunk. We were at my childhood home…and the house was still there, but the 3 acres now supported extra buildings. My old house was now a half-way house for alcoholic men who have been sent away by their familes to get better and alcohol-free. I had to go in the house because this house was in my dream two nights prior. The man let me and I just felt so overwhelmed. This house was a huge deal because it was the last house we all lived in together before my parents divorced and mom died. It was the last house we lived in before mom started to go crazy. In the dream a few days ago, I went back into my room of this house and the closet was full of all my mom’s clothes. In the dream I ran to the closet and wrapped myself in all the hanging clothes and just cried for a long time because I miss her. When we were actually there visiting yesterday, I could not go into my room because a man was in there sleeping.
Something that broke my heart was the reality that the treehouse that I remember running miles and miles away out from the house to was only actually about 100 yards away from the house. When I was little I would run out there to be by myself and as a tiny child it seemed so freeing and like i would have to run forever to get there. It wasn’t the case. I did notice around the house were all these notes tacked to the wall that reminded us that God is in control of our lives and a real man carries the attributes of Christ. This was really cool to me. I am glad they are using the house to lead people to bring Hope to these precious men.
This entry was posted
on Monday, November 6th, 2006 at 3:19 pm and is filed under uncategorized.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.