New Beginnings

Massey was baptized today. What a great Mother-Daughter day!

I am extremely lucky she's always loved me and pretty much (most) of the time liked me!

I'll admit, I can be a lot to take a lot of the time. I find humor in the most bizarre situations and once something I say is funny, like repeating it over and over. To me, it gets funnier every time. My own mother was a pretty humorous person and also a "Repeat" offender like me. Then I think of something funny to say about the first thing I said funny... and the cycle begins again.

 Sometimes feel like my kids grew up often thinking they had a crazy lady for a momma. Seems my kids are pretty smart.

 Unfortunately Massey has always spent a lot more time with me than her two brothers have and knows I'm crazy.

I like being crazy. Call me a weirdo...you'd be right about that one too. At least I'm a good kind of weird and crazy (or at least like to think so) and can say with conviction am not a bad person.


This past year at college she started going to church on a regular basis and has really gotten the message intended. God ain't stupid, just waits for you to notice.

If my own mother was still alive, would be mortified I didn't have her grand kids in church every Sunday morning (night)  Wednesday evening dinner and youth retreats on weekends.

That's the way I was raised.

Every summer when my parents took us to Florida for a weeks vacation, my diddy got out the local phone book and that Sunday as a family attended Sunday School and morning services at the local Christian church nearest to where we were staying.

Granted those weren't real fun visits when you're a kid.

You get to go to the beach one time every year and have to take Sunday clothes packed along with your swimsuit. Then you get to waste a morning at the beach driving in the station wagon to a church you've never been to, split up from your sibs and sent to separate Sunday School classes with a bunch of local kids you've never met nor ever will again.

I remember one year after the brutal Sunday School hour (in a seemingly foreign land) we met our parents in the sanctuary for the morning service. At least we were all back together ( had felt like sixty minutes in  kids prison) could sit by each other while drawing on attendance cards with the tiny pencils and pass notes back and forth.

After the sermon the minister commented and asked if there were any visitors? Of course my diddy raised his hand, stood up and told them all who we were and where we regularly attended church. I was mortified and can almost bet my brother and sister were too.

At the end of the service, the minister gave some closing remarks and then asked boldly if his visitor, Mr. Frank Leach would care to lead the benediction?

I would have bolted when he said my name out loud.

In his Sunday suit, shoes and tie brought with us in a suit case to the beach along with his swim trunks and jock strap didn't hesitate but immediately stood up in an unknown congregation , gave the benediction and sounded as if he'd been attending that specific church all his life. I think I realized that morning for the first time how amazing my father really was. My momma picked a good one to be my diddy, that's for sure.

I guess Massey got their religious genes and am thrilled she did. My parents must upstairs with the Big Guy, watching and all are smiling!

In a church totally different from the one I grew up in but one where she feels the same kind of peace I was lucky enough to experience growing up, my daughter was baptized. It was a glorious thing to witness.

I felt tingles and tears mixed with triumph.

It was a great day.

Her short two minute baptism story knocked me down a notch but lifted me up a hundred.

It's been crazy and sometimes surreal but guess what?

We had faith, trust and can say with conviction that The Big Guy is pretty awesome.

Thrilled my daughter has caught His spark too.

It only takes a spark to get a fire going
And soon all those around, can warm up in glowing
That’s how it is with God’s love
Once you’ve experienced it, you spread His love to everyone
You want to pass it on

What a wondrous time is spring, when all the trees are budding
The birds begin to sing, the flowers start their blooming
That’s how it is with God’s love
Once you’ve experienced it, you want to sing
“It’s fresh like spring”; you want to pass it on

I wish for you my friend, this happiness that I’ve found
You can depend on Him, it matters not where you’re bound
I’ll shout it from the mountain top – PRAISE GOD
I want the world to know; the Lord of love has come to me
I want to pass it on.

Pass it on !

Til next time...COTTON