So, we went home for the weekend. (I still call my the town I grew up in "home" because I have never lived anywhere longer so it still is "home" to me). And the boys and I had a great time. I read a book, the boys got to play with their cousin, my mom and I talked till midnight one night just catching up on things, I saw my friend Abbey for a brief moment at church, I went shopping and we got to see our family. It was good.
And because of the five hour drive to and from here, I thought a lot. Now, normally, when Seth tells me he's been thinking, I reply, "That's never good." And, honestly, I have tried not to really think about things lately. A lot in our lives have changed these past few years and if I get to thinking about them too hard, it gets overwhelming and I start having to deal with all these things that I don't think I am ready to deal with yet. But when you are on the road and your kids are watching a movie, then you have no choice but to think.
And this is one thing I thought about:
*The church I grew up in has really changed. There are just a few children now. I remember when the classrooms were open and had children there, learning about God. Now there is only one room they open and that is the nursery. It made me sad. Because I remembered when I was a kid, we had this awesome preacher. I loved Skip. He was there before our church stopped growing. He was there before we went through preacher after preacher after preacher. He was there before all the kids grew up and left and our youth group was down to 3. When he left, I remembered being sad about it. But I got over it as people do. Then about 5 1/2 or 6 years ago, the unthinkable happened. Skip and his wife was found murdered in their home in Houston. And driving home, I realized that I don't think I will ever get over that. What could possibly make someone kill another person, let alone a man of God and his wife? I just don't know. But it makes you want to hold on to your loved ones even harder. It makes you want to shield your children's eyes from all that is bad in this world. It makes you want to go back to that time when you were a child and all that mattered in the world was whether or not you got to sit with your friends in church. (I always did). It makes hope that you are the kind of person God needs you to be, especially when you or a loved one goes through tough times: if you were there where you were supposed to be, did what you could, loved how you should have loved...
I hope I was and am that person.
4 comments:
I obviously haven't gotten over that either. When I first started to read your post, I thought, "Skip! I loved Skip too, he was a great guy." Then I got to the "he was murdered" part and I was shocked all over again. I actually kind of forgot about it because I hate to think about it.
He really was a wonderful man. He went to Trinity and I have always meant to donate some money in his memory -- it's just something I haven't gotten around to. I definitely need to put that on my list.
Do you remember going on the "nature" walk with Skip? We tred through the cow pasture and everywhere else looking for God's panhandle nature. I'll never forget Skip and how special he always made me feel. It makes me sad to think of everything the world is lacking because he is not here.
BTW your boys (and Cameron) cracked me up during the children's sermon! They definately bring life back into our tiny church.
Just voicing what kind of person you want to be and sharing how much you were affected by what happened show how big your heart is Aimee. It is sad when your church gets smaller and there aren't any kids. That happened at ours too, but now things have turned around again. God is working there, they have a great preacher and the attendance is through the roof! Its always a nice problem to have to buy more chairs and start new Sunday School classes! God's still there though, even in the tiny places!
H
What a sad story --- but I am glad you got to visit with your family!
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