All families have stories from their past. Good, bad, ugly or routine, we have them. They may not all be grand or famous, but they are our stories, none the less.
As adults we need these stories from our past, our childhood, our yesterdays. They teach us love, patience, laughter, caution, and determination. They are the memories we will use as tools to make our way thru life.
Most of our stories create themselves. We help the plot to unfold whether we know it or not and it’s only when we look back , that we see the story as a whole.
As Christians we have a guide, a co-author of our stories . One who sets up the chapters and allows us the choice to write them. He loves us, protects us, and guides us thru those emotional, unknowing paths we walk. Sometimes its hard to know which path to take. But whichever path we choose there will be a story - good, bad or indifferent.
Our stories, like books, have a beginning, a middle and an end. Some of the chapters (paths) will be long, tiring, and painful. Others will be smooth sailing. God is ultimately the One who will bring us along. He is the “Friend”, the co-author, the confidant . He is the One who will boldly guide our steps along that sometimes scary, sometimes unknown and sometimes complicated path. All we have to do is ask. Sometimes we have control of the outcome and sometimes the outcome has control of us.
It’s wise to look back on all the stories of our lives. Many lessons and values are to be learned from them. I have a tremendous treasure trove of stories in my head. There are funny stories, scary stories, happy stories, sad stories. There are stories of love, loss, adventure, pain and fear. I have little stories, big stories, mundane stories, stories of interest, of success and of failure. My stories aren’t gender, age or race specific. My stories include family, friends, co-workers, strangers and people I know of, but have never met. My stories can continue from day to day, week to week, month to month, or sometimes year to year. Some stories are just fleeting moments in my life, but they have left their imprint on my brain just the same.
But, in all my stories there is a constant. I may not always be aware of that constant - by choice or by ignorance, but It’s there just the same. It is our wonderfully awesome God. He is there thru the thick and thin, the highs and lows, grief and joy, the ugly and the pretty and the funny and the sad.
If I have chosen to listen and make the wise choice, my story will be so much more enriched. If I chose not to listen, then it becomes a lesson to be learned - hence, “The Moral of the Story”.
Unfortunately, all our stories won’t be happy ones. Life doesn’t work that way. How are we to learn to lean on someone if we don’t have a reason to lean? How are we going to learn to be compassionate if we don’t need compassion.? How will we learn to discipline if we aren’t disciplined ourselves? And how can we love if we never experience someone’s love for us?
God will open our eyes to the stories of our past so we can hopefully make wise decisions and embark on the journey of creating our own stories for our future generations. And the beauty is : it’s just that - our own stories.
My stories will end some day, but hopefully I will have left behind enough memories for those who will need that road map to follow. So they can learn to lean, be compassionate, be disciplined and mostly, embrace love.
