Memories from Home – November 14, 1999
The word home can send a flood of emotions, feelings, and memories without another word being spoken. For some, single words, such as comfort, warmth, or safety spring to mind. Others recall the smell of Mother’s chocolate-chip cookies, the sound of Father’s shoes on the stairs, or giggles shared with siblings while playing under quilts hung on kitchen chairs.
But not everyone has such wonderful memories. For some, the word home may bring back very different feelings and remembrances that are not so pleasant. Some may have longed for years for the kind of home that generates warm, wonderful memories.
But what we remember really doesn’t matter. Yesterday is gone. There isn’t a thing we can do about it. What matters now is what we are doing today to make new memories for tomorrow. No matter what the past has been, we can fill our homes with laughter, music, and joy. And it doesn’t matter if that home is a mansion or a one-room abode. The things that make wonderful memories aren’t monetary—they are only meaningful.
A family sat for hours after Thanksgiving dinner recounting stories from their childhood. One after another, they told of Saturday mornings when Dad tickled their necks with his whiskers, or of the time they played baseball with Mom and she ran fast enough to tag them out at second base.
The mother, who had fretted for years because she hadn’t been able to give her children more of the material things of life, listened in amazement as she realized that not one of the things her children remembered had anything to do with money. Finally, one child excitedly stopped the others. “The very, very best,” she said, “was the night it rained and Mom pulled us all out of the house in our pajamas and we skipped around on the front lawn until we were soaked to the skin. Then she made us hot chocolate, and we cuddled in blankets while we sipped it.”
It doesn’t matter what memories have been part of our past or whether a house is made of thatch or brick. Any house can be filled with warm, wonderful memories. They make a house a home.
Program #3665