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It’s amazing how much can be contained in a simple meal.  Yesterday my aunt came to for a visit with my parents after not seeing each other for 9 years.  My dad and his sister talk at least once a week and have a great relationship but how wonderful was it for them to be able to reach out and hug each other.  My mom made chicken and dumplings in honor of her mother and memories of the first time my aunt met my grandmother at age 13 came flooding out.  She remembered little details about my mother’s youngest sister and her independent nature.  She may not have remembered the chicken and dumplings but she remembered the most important part.  The memories.

written by Katie Forbess, Iron Rose Sister Ministries, President

Throwback Thursday.  What memory are you taken back to today?  While I was in Venezuela, I could not help but be flooded by the memories of my previous trip there with a campaign group from the South Baton Rouge Church of Christ in summer 2012.  Through that campaign, I was able to share with and blend my Venezuelan family and my Baton Rouge family, especially with my coworker in Campus Ministry and my boyfriend, at that time.  During that trip, in a fairytale manner, he knelt in the Caribbean and asked me to marry him.  I said yes and we shared some of the happiest moments I've ever had.

Not all fairytales have a happy ending and not all dreams come true.  However, it is a blessing when we can look back and treasure the good times, even if they are followed by pain.  (For those of you who don't know, my fiancé ended our relationship two and a half months before the wedding, without warning and in a definitive manner.)

Memories can be challenging when they bring both joy and pain.  They become difficult to sort through and place in their proper context.  May God give us wisdom to cherish those memories, but not dwell there; to learn from our past, but not become embittered by it; to recognize the joy and the pain, but continue to give Him glory through it all.