Priorities

We have memories upon memories at a family home on the bay. My parents built it over 50 years ago...and now that each of them has passed away it has become the joint property of siblings. I suspect that many of you have been in this situation at one time or another. Anyway, it has been on the market for sometime and a prospective sale seems immenent. My heart has been jerked around to and fro...partly because of the memories of our family time shared with my parents there, partly because it was my "go to" place. I would go there when things got crazy in my life and I desperately needed quiet moments of reflection, reproof, and regeneration. I would sit, hanging my legs off the pier, settled by the sight and sounds of seagulls and water, and an occasional fish jumping.... and offer God my thoughts in prayer. It truly gave me a peace that passed all understanding each time I would venture that way. I guess it was my physical spot of refuge...for some of you it is a walk in the woods, or an escape to the mountains or a beach jaunt ...there are a million scenarios..... for me it was the bay!

But things change! The bay, though it will never lose its appeal, has lost its vitality...its life. It is not what it used to be....mom and dad are no longer there...I can look out on the huge area of yard that my dad used to come down and mow every weekend and truly still hear the sounds of that mower in my mind and envision his cockeyed baseball hat sitting on his head as he rounded the corners on the riding mower. I can go in the kitchen and visualize mom setting out a spread of food when at first glance it looked like nothing was in the fridge.....I still appreciate the lazy conversations and fun poolside....and the "guys", my brothers and my husband and early years my dad,... playing baseball in the yard hustling to get the hit ball before it mad its way to the bay bank and splashed in the water. As a teenage child, I spent time after time with my granddad crabbing, then standing on a stool over a porcelain sink at the end of the pier cleaning those pinching creatures. We would laugh and enjoy every minute together. Our family spent several Easter weekends down there with mom and dad and I still remember the colored chicks we brought down there and we sat and watched as they eased around in the hand constructed chicken wire cage on the grass on the side of the house.

My dad was in the barge business and his barges would cross the ship channel in front of the house...and it was a treat when he would take us for a boat ride out to see the huge vessels up close. The bay house weathered many a storm ....and even an electrical fire at one point that caused a great deal of damage throughout the house... my brother Tommy picked up the pieces then and put things back together....I was no help then, for my first child was getting married. The most recent storm was Ike...and it detroyed the entire bottom floor. Though it was a huge hit it also became a huge blessing to me...for dad and I spent a great deal of time together for five months as we managed the reconstruction efforts. He died following the completion. All this said...it is hard to "let go"...of a place that has so many memories. But as time moves on, changes have to be made.

Philippians 3:12-14

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.


I have prayed about this and prayed about it...asking God to help me work through it, accept it graciously and and be able to "let go". He has answered my prayers....through specific incidents that I will not go into...and has helped me to realize once again, that priorities in life are not the things, they are people...and it is the people at the "places" who make the memories. It is the relationships that are made and maintained and remembered....they are what continue for a lifetime.

Isaiah 43
18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.


There will always be a need for change...and the material things are just that....materials...even those things with great sentiment. But I have come to accept the true value of this property is in what I remember....the memories that have been made....the relationships that have been nourished, the lessons that I have learned, the nature that is before me that I have loved watching and embracing, and the times that I have been blessed through quiet time spent with God. In retrospect God used that bay time to being me closer to him...but I did not know that at the time. Only is retrospect do I see how he was working his way into my heart. And in writing this...I realize that that is my most valuable lasting reward from my lifetime bay experiences....that is where I truly met God...where he introduced himself in a very personal way...and where he taught me that he is dependable, and trustworthy, a cherished friend of all times through all situations, and constant...and a great listener....but I had to go somewhere where the worldly distractions were but a faded backdrop....to recognize his gentle presence. He used the place that I loved to be the place where he could teach me of his love....one small conversation at a time.
Where is your "place"? It could be in your own backyard.....or in the park bench nearby!

There will be other places...and other times to make memories... but this place, the bayhouse, though it will no longer be entitled to our family will always have a spot in my heart.

Dear Lord, How I thank you for the blessings of memories...for as things change...you do allow sweet memories to linger on our hearts.

Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!


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www.cathyjodeit.com
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