Will the Circle Be unbroken

So I've been banished to my room all day because I have a terrible sinus and double ear infection.  My eyes are literally just rolling tears & if I tip my face I better have a Kleenex to catch the water. Since all my kids except Selah have been sick this summer I'm hoping not to give them back their wonderful present to me!  Even my husband just popped in to get his clothes for work tomorrow and gave me a wave LOL  No one wants to be with me but Sarah and she was the last one sick!  She handled it like a pro- only was sick for a couple of days but boy did she want to love on Mama during that time!  I sure don't want to give it back to her!  It's funny but I've fought this junk for more than a month- I'd have a little sore throat or ear pain so I'd take some Vit C and Advil and it would be gone.  But I just couldn't fight the inevitable after having all these sickos around!  I don't think I've ever been so glad to see a doctor as I was this morning!  She got me on three meds and I am happy!!!  This week was/is all planned out!  Time to get better!


So being in my bedroom all day but not wanting to sleep, I have watched way too many YouTube videos and read way too much on Facebook.  I find myself going back to videos of church services (yes I'm wild like that) that remind me of my childhood in a Pentecostal church.   You know, I saw some foolishness, and some fakeness but I saw plenty of real moves of God.  There was a reverence for the things of God, even though the church folks might be loud and undignified -there was a reverence that I don't see today.


As a disclaimer, I've always been more of an observer than a participate.  But my heart was touched and I believe those childhood/teen/young adult memories are something that has kept my faith strong in spite of many adversities.


 I can remember times of being at a camp meeting-back when I was growing up the "tabernacles" were all Open Air!  That means no air conditioning in the summer time-which is when camp meetings were held!  We went to two different ones each year.  One was held in Wimauma Florida-near Tampa.  It was the BIG one for Florida and held in June.  The other was nearer home in Mayo Florida and held in August.  And that one was right down the road from chicken farms and cow farms....it was fun!


There were wooden seats inside the tabernacle and ceiling fans.  But if you brought your lawn chair you could sit outside and try to catch some breezes-usually all you got were bugs lol.  It was an experience.  One time we were guests of a family friend who was the head of the Church of God in South Caroline, so we went up and stayed on the campground in a trailer.  Their tabernacle was on a mountain (probably a hill but I was young and from Florida it seemed big!)  I will never ever forget sitting there singing an old hymn "Peace Peace Wonderful Peace, coming down from the Father above, sweep over my spirit forever I pray in fathomless billows of love"  I was only 5 or 6 years old and I can remember the song, and looking out in the dusk down the side of the hill at the trees,  and just absolutely knowing God was real and near to me.  Almost 50 years have passed since that day, all the folks I was with are gone, but that assurance is still there in my heart.  It's guided me all my life.  What a legacy!


Also I can remember being at Camp meeting till late at night and people praying around the altars.  There was no time clock, no one was ready to leave.  Sometimes during the service, a message in tongues would be given along with the interruption.  There was hundreds of people there but the whole building would have a solemn hush come over it-you just knew God was speaking.  All those memories made me who I am today- although I'm a mess-I could be a much bigger mess if I didn't have a framework of God in my life.


Let me encourage you to take your kids to church, every week, keep them involved-you will not regret it.  At the time when I was growing up I had absolutely no idea what was really happening as I was dragged to church, Sunday School, Sunday morning worship (no we didn't have "children's church-we weren't wimps LOL) Sunday night service, Wednesday night service, youth group, Girls's programs, REVIVALS (so many) Vacation bible School, and Camp meeting, church camp......I did it all!!!  Honestly I didn't really mind it too much, but I didn't have a choice if I did LOL!!  But something was being imparted to me in my spirit that would take me through life.  Don't ever get too busy for church Mama, don't believe the lie that you don't need the church.  Yes you do!  So do I and so do our kids.


No I know you can't always keep kids from trouble but my husband and I determined early on that our kids would have to get through us to get to the trouble.  And keeping kids in church will give them a rock to stand on even when they may stray some.


Our church doesn't have all those services like I grew up with and I miss it.  And I have to say I worry about my kids not being in church enough.  There is something about immersing yourself in God and the things of God that will get a hold of a person.  I know that's not really popular in this crazy busy world we live in now but it is true.


Ok back to fond memories....the last time I went to the Mayo Tabernacle was to take my grandmother.  She had quit driving out of town at night (she was about 88 years old thank God she had quit driving her little bright blue Nova at night!)   Anyhow a friend of her's Bro TL Lowery was preaching.  Our son Steve was about 2 years old.  The tabernacle was still open and I spent some of the time running around with him but it was sweet.  Now my granny is gone, her friend the preacher is too.....   We went by there a couple years ago when we were camping on the Suwanee River  and I saw that it was now enclosed and air conditioned.  No more smelling the chickens or cows or having bugs fly around you!  I imagine some of the "dancing" I saw was shaking off a bug!



A few years ago, we went down to Wimauma camp meeting.  That tabernacle has been enclosed for some years and was comfortable but I missed it being open.  But that night I sat all the way in the back and was so ministered to by God.  We had been going through alot in our church and with Sam who was still very sickly.  Let me tell you that minister preached right to us about not giving up and trusting God.  I wept the whole time but was so encouraged in my heart.  BTW I'm not a crier either, preachers can't work me up emotionally.  But I know when God is in something and He was in that sermon.  I'm sure we were not the only ones who had been through some fiery trials  but it was a precious time for me.  It did remind me that something can change on the outside doesn't have to mean that the inside has changed.


Most of my earliest memories were in church.  Earlier this year we were in my hometown on a weekend.  Our oldest son was showing his documentary at the town's park that he had done for Perry.  Since we were there over the weekend I got to go to my family's church.  It had been at least 20 years since I'd set foot in there.  Our family sat in my family's pew where we sat every service, on the left side about 4 pews from the back.  The memories overtook me, in my mind's eye I could just see all those folks again.  The church has dwindled down, so many have passed away.  We sang the old songs, we sang "Oh I want to See Him" and I thought of how God had brought me from there as a child and now has given me a family and a ministry.  I thought of how it is a continuous of passing the faith along.  The faith of my family was passed down to me and sown in my life, I had to make the choice to accept it and pass it on to my kids.  I thought my great aunts and granny would be proud that I was there with my kids in church, serving God.  Yes, I cried a bit, in fact I was afraid I might "ugly cry" if I wasn't careful!  But it was very meaningful to me.



I almost forgot to take a picture but I did right before we left.  You know recently we took some pictures of the whole family at church.  for some reason we take pictures at the front of the church and have for years.  Our friend who was taking the photos asked if we wanted to take them somewhere else and it kind of startled me.  I didn't realize how meaningful it was to me to take pictures inside the church.  Anyhow then I started looking at our pictures over the years and so many of them are at church.  But that is where we are dressed up and all together so I guess it makes sense LOL

So I encourage you to make church attendance a regular part of your family's life.  You will not regret it.   My husband was taken to church on a regular basis and he also feels it gave him a foundation.  His church was in no way as entertaining as mine was and I doubt you can hardly find a church today that is like it was LOL   But there's something to be said about taking the time to acknowledge God as a family on at least a weekly basis.



My husband loves that old song made famous by Johnny Cash "Daddy Sang Bass" I think it was written by one of his associates about Cash.  There is another song called "Will the Circle be Unbroken?"  Both songs have the theme of faith knitting our families together throughout eternity