...a word from Kathy

Y ears ago, our Sunday School class decided to study, Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. I was looking forward to the study until I opened the book and the first sentence in the very first chapter read, ‘It’s not about you’. Stunned and convicted and the study had not yet begun! Oh me, Oh my. That book study was at least 15 years ago and yet here I sit today reminded of those words and convicted again. I was shopping with my 17-year-old daughter this week which is always fun and can be challenging. At one point in our day she said, “Mom, you’re like the most sensitive person I’ve ever met. Everything I say you take out of context”. Now you may recognize that this was not one of our better moments that day but it has been a good reminder to me of my condition of ‘self’. She was right…I have a tendency to hear words, or not enough words, or not the right words and if they are not to my liking I can feel myself literally shut down. Shut down my love and shut down my availabil...

J uly 4 is a big celebration in my family. And again this year, we gathered at my sister’s home in Jackson, Mississippi. Our attending family was something like this: 20 adults, 8 teenagers, 4 elderly, 1000 children (oh, sorry typo!) 10 children, and one infant. We ate, we cleaned the kitchen, we swam, we fished, we ate some more, we cleaned more dishes, we laughed, we looked at pictures, we ate, we slept very little, we ate, we washed dishes again, we cried, we talked about nothing, we talked from the heart, we got frustrated, we ate, we prayed, we churched together and we ate again. It was wonderful, messy, loving family days…..but yet…. ….some were not among us. The names I longed to see were: Carolyn, Meme, Stephanie, Nick, Sarah, Josh, Jonathan, Mary Ashton, and Scott. So as wonderful as the family days were for all they were incomplete as our entire family was not with us. Yes, we had fun but our hearts held a place for those unable to attend. We longed for th...