Month: February 2018

God has created some amazing people and put them in my life. These people are present in everyday life such as today—Sunday. Sometimes you just take comfort in the everyday relationships. They don’t need a lot of work, they’re just enjoyable. As you read this, think of the people God put in your life today, Sunday, February 25, 2018.

My husband of 44 years makes me a cup of tea while I get ready for church before he heads to the hospital. He’s on call this weekend for his cardiology group. Then I get to church and I get to sit with one of my best friends because her husband is serving as elder today and we join my son and his family in our usual pew. (No comment, please!) My grandson has a new haircut and it looks really sharp.

Our wonderful pastor has an inspirational message. He is a gift to our congregation for sure! We pray for many of our congregation members. One of our charter members has received her heavenly crown of life. She was a big encourager and friend. I will miss her. She was 100 years old.

After church, we have bell choir rehearsal. Our piece for Easter is really hard. We have a great director who is a band director at an area high school. He has a lot of patience with us older folks as we try to make our music sound like praise and not something else. He’s a marvelous musician, singer, and director. We love him.

Two bell choir members and I go out to lunch afterward and Bill takes a break from the hospital to join us. My friends are also nurses and it doesn’t take long before we are in tears laughing as we share hospital horror stories. As Bill says, “you can’t gross out a nurse”. If laughing helps the digestion we are in good shape.

Getting home, my six-year-old granddaughter calls to see if she can come over and color. So we spend some time designing new My Little Ponies and then it’s on to Toca Boca on the iPad. Later my 11-year-old granddaughter and her friend drop in for popcorn and pop. Tomorrow she gets braces put on.

Later in the evening, I’m invited down to their house to pull one of her teeth. It didn’t happen much to the disappointment of my 14-year-old grandson. Had a nice conversation with my son who is a great father.

So I’m writing this around 9:30 Sunday night. I’m disappointed my husband is still in at the hospital but I’ve had a wonderful day of rest and reconnection and I’m sorry he has had to work all day.

God really gives us such great blessings whether they are unusually surprising or unusually every day. Relationships are so important. I hope if you look back on Sunday, February 25, 2018, you’ll identify and be grateful for the people you encountered today and celebrate the relationships you enjoy. I am!

Patti

I was born and raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma. My father, Norbert R. Mahnken, was a history professor at Oklahoma State University. He arrived in 1945 and stayed there the rest of his life. In 1953 he and my grandfather, Fred W. Mahnken, who was a builder, built our home at 920 W. Cantwell St.

We lived there 16 years, all of my childhood. I remember 920 as a big house and big yard. Of course, as I look at it now, it was very small. My father kept a white fence with red rose bushes along it. It was lovely. He was able to walk to and from the campus every day. We could ride our bikes anywhere on campus, and because the campus barns were nearby we sometimes had horses or sheep coming through the yard when some ag student left the gates unlatched.

We had wonderful neighbors, some of whom belonged to our church, Zion Lutheran. We built forts, clubhouses, had a wonderful sand pile. The neighborhood basketball court was our driveway.

Best of all, we had our family. My younger brother, Robert, who many of you met in Albuquerque, my mother and my dad. We went to church, my mother did LWML, my father was an elder and substitute organist. We did family vacations and golfing together. We were a happy and blessed family unit in our little house at 920. That’s where we came home to — where we were together.

On a trip to an OSU basketball game last week my husband and I drove by 920. I had heard it was due to be bulldozed to make room for the campus expansion. Sure enough, all there was at 920 was an empty lot.

Made me sad. I’m glad I have good memories of it as a home and not just a house. As Christians we know even if our earthly house and home fades away, our heavenly house will be, above all, a home where we will be together as a family!

“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John, 14:2-3).

Patti