Mom vs. the Dot: Making it COUNT!

Six months ago, my parents-in-law packed up and moved out of their house, ready to begin retirement.  They were told they would be able to move into their newly built house by the end of summer.  The construction company was a bit off schedule, as September, October, and November passed by and the house still wasn't finished.  Finally, the weekend before Christmas, the house was ready! We loaded up the kids and headed over to help them move in.  My dear husband made multiple trips with a U-Haul truck for four days - loading, unloading, carrying.  We were so glad, so relieved that the time had finally come!  We wanted so badly for them to be in their house before Christmas. My husband recently shared a story during one of his sermons:  Growing up as a United Methodist pastor's kid, he moved from house to house fairly frequently, his father being assigned to a different church every several years.  When they'd pack up then set up house in t...

The story of The Dot. My husband was teaching the youth group at our church a year or two ago, and he used an illustration that struck me.  Startled me, really. At home, he asked me to locate some rope to use for his illustration.  We had a coil of clothesline in the basement, so I brought that up.  He grabbed a black Sharpie and prepared to head out the door. "What are you doing with the rope and marker?"  I had to know. It's for an illustration tonight.  I'll tell the teens to visualize this rope running along the walls of the youth room, and all the walls of the church.  Then it continues forever - there is no end. Next, I'll have a volunteer come up and make one dot on the rope with the black marker.  This, I will explain, represents their entire time on earth.  The rope is eternity and that little black dot encompasses every moment we have here on earth. Puts things into perspective, doesn't it? I began to think of things I ...