PHOTO ABOVE: One of my great memories and still the tradition for our family...Mom started making strawberry shortcakes for my sister Mary Ann's birthday who was born in June (strawberry season in New Jersey). It became such a hit that all of us ending getting this treat for our birthdays - no matter the time of year. My buddy Titus is one today. I hope he gets this all over his face.This pic is of Angelique, his mom, on her 4th birthday. "Home" must go on.
PHOTO BELOW: Spanning the generations...my birthday-brother Paul keeps the tradition very much alive even to this day.
“I didn’t have much of a home life.”
When someone says that, they aren’t suggesting, “My house had too much sand in the cement in the foundation walls” or “The 2 x 4’s weren’t exactly straight and so our home looked liked The Leaning Tower of Pisa.”
The inference is divorce or the death of a parent, an abandoning mom or dad or both, an unsupportive or even abusive upbringing, a place where their folks couldn’t rub two nickels together or any manner of discouraging realities.
Some of these people can enter the adult world so emotionally and/or spiritually crippled that they never recover or consistently deal with inferiority complexes. They always wonder why the other person in class or at their job seems so confident, has advanced so quickly and has good memories of their past.
On the other hand, when a person relates their happy childhood, they talk of being from a good home. There were big deals about birthday parties that translated into feeling like their birth was the greatest thing that ever happened. They were disciplined and taught to study. Vacations were extra special and they might even have received some help with college tuition and sent off with a great wedding day. They would often start a sentence with, “My parents used to…” Then, they’d complete their happy memory.
Home is not an address. It truly is where the heart resides. I was one of the lucky ones. The first thing I did after marriage was to literally buy a home and tried, in some healthy respect, to recreate the vibe and love of the home I grew up in.
People born into more unfortunate circumstances may gravitate toward a parent role-model or a sibling-figure. It’s the smartest thing they can do.
I lost my parents before my children could know them. I can only pray they got to know them because they knew where and what I called home.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: The parent can be the most important portal to heaven. Every moment by example can direct them toward their eternal home.
Write us with your favorite childhood "home" memories: awaken@sonrisen.com
‘I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.’…For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me…'Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner'…Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them….Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives…If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father…Then they asked him, ‘Where is your father?’ ‘You do not know me or my Father,’ Jesus replied. ‘If you knew me, you would know my Father also.’
John 16:28 NASB, John 6:38 NASB, John 5:19 NASB, John 14:23 NIV, John 14:27 NIV, John 14:28 NIV, John 8:19 NIV