Nana's Notions
Related Categories: Legacy
Legacy building happens in mundane moments of life when we least expect it. I experienced one of those moments a few days ago and I can't get it out of my mind. We were enjoying a relaxing evening with friends, Bob and Becky and their two sweet children, R.J. and Anna Beth. Dinner was delicious and healthy. Chuck accepted R.J.'s invitation to see his latest Lego projects and Becky laughed and warned him that he would now get the full picture of their home organization.
After dinner, Bob suggested that Becky show me some of her scrapbooking albums. Conversation buzzed in the background as the beautifully created album pages carried me back into
Becky's childhood and marriage. Perhaps because of my own passion for passing on a legacy of faith and family to our children and grandchildren, I had no trouble picturing her life and the special connection she had with her mother and grandmother and sisters. Her father is a photographer so the pictures of Becky growing up years told a story of love and family that contributed to the strong family foundation that exists in her home today.
This particular album is a personal journal for R.J. and Anna Beth. In it Becky tells the story of her own life and how her parents influenced her love for art and creativity. She describes her mother taking her to art museums and how her mother encouraged her to paint alongside of her as a little girl. She tells R.J. and Anna Beth that she wants to pass on that same love of life and creativity to them. I was especially taken with her comments about her Nana's Notions. With Becky's permission I include them here:
Mom handed down Nana's sewing basket to me after my grandmother's passing in 2001. I gave the wicker basket a place of honor in my craft room, but initially I didn't do much with it. I would open it here and there to get a needle and thread but that was it. As time went on, and my time spent scrapbooking increased, my visits to Nana's stash of notions became more frequent. On one of my little treasure hunts, I found a large hat pin that I now use as my paper piercer when scrapbooking and card making. In my searches for the perfect button or embellishment, I would often find little bits of memorabilia: theater tickets, Catholic medals, even a little swatch of hastily sewn fabric where Nana stashed her extra needles. Ironically, aside from the hat pin, I've never used any of Nana's notions on my scrapbook pages. Instead, each little pearl button and rhinestone I have handled is a kind of kiss from Nana, best left tucked away in her precious basket. Even as I created a scrapbook page about her notions, I decided to scan her supplies as opposed to displacing them. Except for the "I'm Available" pin. That just cracks me up. And I think somewhere she's laughing right along with me.
I'm not sure if it was intentional, but Becky's labor of love contains numerous life lessons for parents and real life examples of how God transforms the mundane tasks of life into a majestic picture of His love through the dynamics of a biblical family.
I reluctantly closed the album and Anna Beth took it from me. She cuddled up next to her mommy and began to slowly turn each page. What a beautiful picture of legacy, a little girl drinking in the life of her mother, grandmother and a great grandmother that she never met, but will feel like she knows.
At home later that night, I couldn't get this picture out of my mind. I imagined that one day Becky and Bob might have to pack up the albums and put them in the attic, perhaps in an attempt to find more room in their home or maybe as they try to pare down their lives and move into the empty nest season of life. I imagined their grown children cleaning out the attic and rediscovering these priceless records of their family roots. And I imagined another little girl, Becky's grand daughter or maybe even great grand daughter, cuddling up to her mommy, slowly turning the pages of their family history and drinking in the legacy of faith that her grandmother so lovingly recorded for her own children.
I think Becky is right. Her grandmother is laughing right along with her, not only because of the "I'm Available" pin but because her beloved granddaughter gets it - the value of family passing on a legacy of faith to children not yet born. Thank you, Becky, for sharing this legacy with us. Perhaps your expression of love will inspire others to go and do likewise.
In His grip,
Sharon

family room. Though we like to say there's always room for one more, well, there wasn't a chair or much floor space left. Our host explained that we would sing a few songs, take turns reading a Psalm and then the children would leave for their special worship time while the adults discussed the morning message. Some of the children immediately waved their hands, hoping to be chosen to read one verse of the Psalm. As we turned in our Bibles, the leader encouraged us to be ready to thank God for one blessing as we prayed sentence prayers after the Psalm reading. Emotion welled up inside of me as I listened to the children read, some experienced readers and some bravely trying out their new reading skills. And then the prayers - one right after the other from the mouths of these precious children: Thank you God for my Sunday School teachers; thank you for dying on the cross; thank you for being with us. . . Then two adults took over twenty-five children into another room to share Bible truths with them. As the adults discussed the morning message, there was little noise coming from the children's room. These parents are doing something right in teaching their kids how to respond to such teaching moments.
keep that promise and last night Chuck and I had the privilege of seeing the physical evidence in our own little world once more.
and generous support of numerous ministries. I was intrigued by the scripture reference and concluded that I wanted to be just like my father when I grew up (I was in my early fifties at the time).
USA, called Sharondale. Yes, his construction company built it and he named it after me when I was about five years old. Through the thick and thin days of running his own business, he didn't waver from his core values. Many of his seven children and their future spouses as well as grandchildren worked in his contracting business where we inherited his strong work ethic.
My mother died at Christmas, 1998, after a long illness. As I observed Daddy after her death, I concluded that in several important aspects, she had prepared him for her absence. Though always stoics when it came to death and grief, when our son, Mark, died, my mother realized that our way of grieving was far different than she had ever experienced. She read the same books on grief that I was reading and told my father he needed to read them, too, because, "Chuck and Sharon are not reacting to Mark's death in a way that we would and we need to understand them." (More on that in a later post.) I think her example influenced his response to her death. Instead of stoicly hiding his sorrow, my father openly grieved for my mother. He was unashamed of his tears or to admit that he cried every day in her absence. I think my mother prepared him to grieve openly because she embraced our grief journey though open grieving was foreign to her.
Katie asked me why I wanted her to come over by herself because usually if I have one grandchild, I invite the rest of them to visit so they can have time together. I decided to tell Katie the truth. "We haven't had much time together this summer and you're growing up so fast. I don't want you to run by me. I miss you!"
our time together, I read, "Future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, for he has done it." I knew that God was reminding me that the most important and precious "task" for that day was my time with Katie. Katie might think we were just scrapbooking. But some day she will understand that the special moments with Grammy helped lock into her heart the power of family and legacy. She doesn't understand now that the gift of Cousins Camp, a week at the beach with the entire family, is not given just because we all love the beach. She doesn't know that because of these special family times, one day Katie and all the cousins will make sure that they plan extended family gatherings for their children, our great grandchildren, those yet unborn, because they cherish the memories of Cousins Camp, Sunday spaghetti dinners and sleepovers at Grammy and Grand Dad's, shopping trips, baking Syrian bread, making grape leaves, setting the table for holidays, picking tomatoes, snuggling as many cousins as possible on Grammy's lap for a story or watching a movie. Someday they might realize that while they were spending time with Grammy and Grand Dad, God was helping shape their worldview and planting seeds of wisdom that fell from the fruit of Grammy and Grand Dad's life journey into their hearts. And slowly but surely they will realize that the underlying purpose for all of these special times was to create a safe place for our treasured grandchildren to see Jesus and experience Jesus.
