The first week of my sabbatical I wanted to tackle the main mission I had which was to work on bringing my parents back into the church. In addition, I worked on anything they needed around their house. You are probably thinking that seems simple? Well not exactly. Little history on this to set the stage.
Both of my parents are in their early eighties and they are able to still move around but like anyone else who is elderly, they need help. As for the church part, I grew up going to church when I was very little and I can barely remember going since I was really young. For whatever reason we stopped going to church and I never bothered to ask why. I guess since I was going to private school my spiritual needs were being met but I did not bother to think about my parents spiritual needs.
So it begins…I loaded my truck with 2 of my 3 kids and my bike for exercise with me and we drove to my brother who lives in Boyd, TX and I dropped both Brooke and Hunter off to stay with them a few nights. After visiting awhile I then left for my parents house which is in Hurst, TX.
As I began working around my parents house last week time can run away from you. I had to manage my self so I can stay on track with the guidelines of the sabbatical because I am one of those who starts a project and keep working on it until it is finished. I had to leave myself enough time for my bike ride in the evenings and read my book which is “The Book of Mysteries” by Jonathan Cahn in the morning. Also, I am doing my bible study over the Gospel of Matthew by Jeff Cavins & Sarah Christmyer.
Here are a few pictures of the work I did around my parent’s house:
Removing trim around shed that has rotted out and critters have been moving in.
Me removing the old rotted out trim
Me cutting the new trim for replacement
Me trimming trees in the back yard. I also trimmed trees in their front yard
One of the evenings I moved their computer and everything else from the bottom of the computer desk and the electrical cords to the top. My mom said it was too hard to crawl on the ground to mess with any of these items and I agreed!
Initial confusion of wires everywhere but operational check is good when I finished!
In the evenings I started slowly bringing up about going to church and not much action was taken on the subject. As time went by, I realized I really have to make an impact before I left to go back to Abilene. So finally late Friday night I had a meaningful conversation with my mom about why they stopped going to church and I had a break through! Come to find out, my mom said that my dad had mentioned to her that he would like to go to church.
I thought this was great, even though my mom did not say anything to my dad when he said he wanted to go to church again. To me this gave me affirmation that God was working through me when I decided to do this for my sabbatical. Before I left to go back home, I told my parents that I loved them and that God loves them too and that you are not off the hook yet until you can agree with what church you are going to attend. I will continue to follow up with them and will keep you posted on what happens.