REFLECTIONS
March 27, 2005
 
 
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6 NKJV
 
 
An Example That Lives On…
 
From time to time most of us feel a desire to return to our childhood—to experience our roots just one more time. Reliving the memories of days gone by is what draws us to look through old photo albums, communicate with friends we grew up with, and attend events like class reunions. We long for an opportunity to walk the old ground along the paths that we once took to places we used to go with the people that walked them with us. Nostalgia they call it. Such was the attraction that recently brought the descendants of Anton and Ida together for a day of reunion.
There was a lot of catching up to do learning about the paths of life that have taken each to separate places. The attraction of the day though was not in learning where everyone went. The attraction of the day was returning to where all of the paths had begun.   The center piece of the occasion was the place they all called “home.”
It was fun to watch all of those Swedish descendents, four generations of them, laughing and hugging and telling stories and relearning about each other.  Pictures and stories were flying everywhere. It was a scene that would have pleased Anton and Ida. That is the way they hoped it would be. But it didn’t just happen.
The family came together because Anton and Ida established the custom of bringing the family together often. How else would all of those cousins have known about things they talked about, or cared to talk about them, or even to have known each other at all?
It took someone’s invitation to bring them all together on this occasion; but the foundation for this gathering was laid many years ago in the home of Anton and Ida. The family gatherings initiated over the years produced the memories that bonded the family so tightly that they longed to return to experience the love once again. And by so doing, the richness of the custom has been passed along to live in the children and grandchildren that were in attendance with them.
Anton and Ida set an example that lives on through their descendants, and the training their children and grandchildren received from them is being passed on to younger generations and most likely to generations to yet come.
I pray to leave a legacy as meaningful and enduring.
 
You are the light of the world,
Richard Ì


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