Stories

Recently we've been reading a book in school about reading- namely reading comprehension.  I always knew about how important it is to read to your children but a new fact was how important it is to tell them stories.  I realized I never told my children my stories about my life growing up.  I don't know why.  Maybe I didn't think they were important enough to tell?  I was wrong to not tell them the stories of my childhood.  How could they know where they have come from without hearing my stories.  Especially now that they don't talk to me.

How will my grandchildren know their heritage without hearing my stories.  My boys won't tell them because they won't know.  I've decided to write the stories I remember as significant to me so they will know someday who I was and why I am today.  I know now they are not interested but maybe some day.  It is important to pass on our past- it makes us who we are.

I see this in the generational poor I serve in my school.  I want my boys to know what kind of stock they come from.  Hard working German stock with ethics and a faith in God through the Missouri Synod Lutheran church.  Faith that saw them through many a rough times.  I want them to know of their ancestors and how they survived life through their faith in Jesus Christ.

So whether it comes out in prose or poetic form I don't know but I constantly flash back to the farm before Daddy became ill with ALS.  Probably the happiest time in my life.  It's kind of a Laura Ingalls Wilder kind of story...