Growing up I shared a room with my sister. For a while there, we even shared the same bed. My cousins had four girls to a room–two in each bed. That’s just how it was back then. Big families made do.
With seven girls in the house, and one bathroom, we learned to share.
Clothes were passed down, and since I was the youngest I got all the leftovers. But I didn’t mind. I loved sorting through their old clothes, picking and choosing my favorites, knowing that I was growing up too.
We also shared memories. Lots of them.
Hanging out in the basement playing Monopoly… making cakes in our Easy Bake Oven… turning the upstairs closet into a fort… listening to stories around the kitchen table… camping on the weekends with our cousins… playing restaurant with our friends… summer afternoons down at the pool… ice skating… snowball fights in the yard… eating Mom’s Christmas cookies… and watching Dad play the fiddle while our little dog danced…
Every day that we spend with our families we’re creating a memory. Every moment we share helps to shape who we are.
We’re all familiar with the word “family,” but I was curious to find out how that word came about.
According to Dictionary.com “family” originates from the Latin word “famulus,” meaning servant. The term was originally used to describe household servants. “It was not until 1667 that the term was used specifically for the group of persons consisting of parents and their children.”
I love that. I think the word “servant” beautifully describes the inner structure of a loving family patterned after the character of Christ.
Love is so much more than a feeling, it’s an act of service. When one hurts, we all hurt. When one rejoices we rejoice with them.
We’re there for each other. We lean on each other. We pray for each other. We’re family. And because we’re family, we’re servants.
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Tilling the Soil
Go out of your way for your loved ones this week by spending time with them and praying for them.
Planting Hope
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:5-7, KJV)
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Darlene Schacht and her husband Michael live in Manitoba Canada where the summers are beautiful and the winters are cold. Together they’ve come to learn that relationships aren’t always easy, but that marriage, the way God intended it to be, is a treasure worth fighting for.
She began her publishing journey about twelve years ago when she pioneered one of the first online magazines for Christian women, known at the time as “Christian Women Online Magazine.” After three years, Darlene left CWO to blog as a solo author at Time-Warp Wife Ministries.
It was also during this transition that she worked alongside actress Candace Cameron Bure to write the NYT Best-Selling book, Reshaping it All: Motivation for Spiritual and Physical Fitness. Reshaping it All was the winner of both the 2011 USA Best Book Awards and the 2012 Christian Reading Retailers Choice Awards.
Author of more than 15 books, Darlene continues to write and to minister to her readers through her blog at TimeWarpWife.com.
Connect with Darlene:
Facebook: @timewarpwife
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You are loved by an almighty God,
Darlene Schacht
The Time-Warp Wife