dna

Yesterday I traveled to a family funeral.  My aunt who lived close to me, while I was growing up, passed away.  I have good and kooky memories of her.  She would call me up when I was young and we would go shopping.  Just because she needed retail therapy.  Sometimes she bought the tackiest things but most of the time she gave them away.  She would always buy me something.  Anything I wanted.  The tackier the better!
We would go to places like Big Lots, where I didn't usually go.  It was fun.  She bought longerie.

In middle school my family built a pool.  She didn't know how to swim and my grandfather tried to teach her.  It was so funny.  But she was a sport and by the end of the first summer she could at least tread water and not drown.

At the funeral they talked about her servant's heart.  She would go once a week and work the soup kitchen, there were nuns who talked about how she helped set up a community vacation bible school (she was not catholic but church of God), they talked about the time she spent at church and the jobs she did around the church that no one else wanted to do, she had a card ministry.  She would send cards to anyone that needed a pick me up. 

I listened and thought...maybe I got more of her than I ever thought.  She looked beautiful.  She had on a bright lime green suit that was just her.  A tacky bracelet she said her husband sent her from heaven.  See what I mean!!

It is funny what we inherit.  Sometimes more than height, weight, eye colors it is morals, values and tackiness.  I'm sure that isn't encoded in our DNA.  I have my grandfather's bible that I got after he passed away, I love to go to it and look at what he has underlined.  The notes he has made in the margins.  I love to know his thoughts on scripture.  Love of scripture and of the Word is not in our DNA.  That is what family gives you.  Family brings you up and grounds you in faith.  They nurture your faith and help it to grow.  Your church family as you grow up help to mold and ground you. 

I love to tell my church kids about Mr. Porter.  He was my middle school and confirmation teacher.  He always took the Sunday school class no one wanted, which in my time seemed to be my class!  He was always there no matter what, he was one of those nurturers.  As I aged and would come back to my home church he would always make his way to me and ask about my life.  To this day I remember things he said to us.  I always say I took on the middle school at my church because of him.  He taught me God has a plan. 

All of this is not in our DNA but we receive it just the same from our families.