Gratitude Day #4
Today I am grateful for my church family.
Actually, I have a lot of families.
1. I have my own family, immediate and extended.
2. I have my genealogy "family".
3. I have my church family.
And, I probably have even more than those listed above, if I really stopped to think about it. But, on this Sabbath Day, I am thinking about my church family.
It has been part of my life all of my life. Mansfield is where I was born, and where my parents were already attending church. Many of the activities were held at our home, which included food and laughter and teachings of the gospel.
It later moved to our new building in 1961, where my dad was the first bishop. The building expanded under his tutelage.
My young life was filled with:
1. Church dinners and bazaars to help with the building fund.
2. Activities with my peer group.
3. Teachers who put up with me and my shenanigans.
4. Learning how to worship.
5. My own baptism.
But, my adult life took some different turns.
1. It's where we raised our own children.
2. It where I learned to realize who God was, and how people behaved who believe in Him.
This marvelous church family of mine has:
1. Been by my side when I recovered from childbirth, providing help and meals.
2. Was "at the ready" when I received word that my mother had suffered another stroke in Akron - an hour away. There were people who would keep and watch my children at the drop of a hat wen I needed to take off to support my parents.
3. They held me close when I lost my mother. Many of them became the mother figures I needed while still young myself.
4. They quietly came and drove away with bushels of pears that I had bought right before she died. I had laid the pears out to ripen in my basement before I would can them. Little did I know that I would find them all gleaming in jars, ready to put on the shelf after the funeral.
5. They helped when our oldest son suffered a head-on collision. While I stayed at the hospital around the clock, they stepped in to give some normalcy to my other children. They provided meals, took them to piano, sports practices, and dance class while I was MIA for a month.
6. Years later, when that same son would die, and while I recovered from back surgery, my church family stepped in to get our family through the toughest time we had ever experienced.
7. Now that all of my children are thousands of miles from home, that same church family is looking out for us. They check in on us, help us haul branches and cut down trees that have been damaged in the storms, and make sure that we know we are valued.
In turn, we do these same types of things for those in our church, and in our community.
I have worshiped within these walls for my entire life. I have prayed. I have fasted. I have wept. The congregation may have changed; but their principles have not.
So today, I am grateful to have been surrounded by some of the best people to have walked this earth for the better part of 63 years.
Mansfield Ward Building
Mansfield, Ohio
Built in 1961
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