The Difference

The difference between a Motel 6 and your Family's Home

1. At the M6, you come and go as you please, any time day or night. Time doesn't matter - you can just walk in and flop down on whatever seems comfortable at the time and stay as short or long of a time as you want to. At your family's home, you keep in touch with your loved ones and let them know how to reach you and when to expect you to be home. This is not only because you care about each other, but also for safety and in case family members need to reach each other in emergencies. This is also something very old fashioned called 'good manners' and even 'common sense'.
2. At the M6, you can bring in your friends anytime day or night. It doesn't matter if your family knows them, or even if you just met them in a bar - you can hang out, sleep, party, whatever as you please with whomever you please. At your family's home, you check ahead and make sure it is a convenient time to bring friends over. You ask, not only because you are polite and respectful of the rest of the family, but also because the family has a right to know who is coming and going inside their home. You introduce your friends to the family when they come over. This is also another one of those old fashioned things known as 'respect'.
3. At the M6, you can leave for days at a time (provided your room is paid up), and no one will care. You don't need to check in, in fact the innkeeper would think you were wierd if you did check in. With your family, you would never 'disappear' because you know your family loves you and would be worried about you. You would never deliberately 'miss' their calls - You would want them to be able to find you and know you are safe. You would even want to hear about them - their lives, how things are going, as well as sharing with them about your life. This is called 'communication', and is a sign of a healthy relationship.
4. If you 'live' at th M6, you don't really have to LIVE there. You can just dump your stuff there, use it as your mailing address, and basically thats it. Then you can REALLY live in all sorts of places, with all sorts of people - you can even move around day to day and LIVE with different people every day of the week. At your family's home, if you LIVE there, that means you spend time there. You go to sleep there (most nights), and wake up there. It is where you go after work or school every day. You eat meals and spend time with the family. You help out around the house, you communicate, and you share your life with your family. If you are an adult, once you finish school and have a job (and you choose to continue living at home), you voluntarily pay rent monthly to your parents to help suppport your home. This is another one of those pesky old fashioned ideas called being 'honorable'.

There are, of course, many more differences between a Motel 6 and your Family Home, just like there are differences between a Public Storage unit and your Family's home. Oh, and incidentially, the 'good manners', 'common sense', 'respect', 'communication', and 'honorable' behavior is expected from ADULTS. After all, only a child could possibly confuse his/her Family's Home with a Motel 6.

Expensive but Worth It

Friday was a special day. Amanda and I bought tickets to a local play "Funny Money", and made plans for a girl's night out. She had to see two plays this semester fo fulfill her theater class requirements, and this was play #2. The first play we saw was "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf", so we decided it was time for a change of pace and "Funny Money", being a British Comedy, was certainly that.

To be sure I would have enough energy, I 'saved my spoons' all day, just resting and being sure to stay on my O2 constantly. By the time I picked Will up from school, I felt like I could squeeze in a trip to Wal-Mart (riding the scooter of course), to get him some warm clothes. We've been talking about it for about 3 weeks now, and he was way overdue. It is such an unexplainable simple pleasure of parenting to take the kids clothes shopping. It's such a joy to see them get excited about a pair of pants, a sweatshirt, to see their smile, to know you have a small part in making them happy and caring for their needs. I'm always so grateful for the blessing of having enough money to take care of my kids. Anyway, towards the end of our shopping, my scooter ran out of battery juice, and Will had to push me in the scooter full of clothes up to the front of the store, so he got a good work-out.

We got home about 5 minutes before Amanda, and so I dressed and took about 30 minutes of Oxygen before we started out for the play. We had never been to this playhouse before, so we left early to make sure we could find it on time. It turned out to be easy to find, and not so far away. Although it was in Marietta, it was on our side of Marietta, just down Sandy Plains Road. Amanda Drove, so I got to rest and use my portable O2 during the ride. After we found the playhouse (Centerstage Theater, I think), we went over to a nearby shopping center for a quick bite to eat. The choices were a Pizza/Pasta place, and Jersey Mike's Subs. Amanda urged for the sub place, but I prevailed - I really wanted to try the Pasta. Turns out she was right. The pasta took way too long to come and we had to pack it up in go boxes almost as soon as it arrived so we could make it to the play on time. I made a critical mistake - I ordered Angel Hair with fresh garlic, forgetting that I would be sitting in close proximity to a lot of other people for the next 2 hours. By the time I realized this, it was too late, so I pulled out the tic-tacs and tried my best not to breathe on anyone. Amanda had Fettucinni Alfredo, and it was totally yummy! She hesitated to order it because with Fettucinni Alfredo, it's either really good, or really bad. It's like a 50/50 chance with a new place you haven't tried before. But fortunately, it turned out to be good.

The play was fast moving and humurous, with only a couple of real belly-laughs. The theather ws smallish- and like a black box theater. We got seats right on the front row. We sat next to an elderly lady (Amanda was next to her - lucky for her she didn't get too close to my garlic breath!). When she sat down, she asked Amanda to help her with her sweater. It was obvious she had very bad Arthritis. Amanda was so kind and respectful to her and helped her off with her sweater. Then she arranged it around her shoulders to keep her warm. They struck up a conversation, and it turned out that this lady is a founding board member for the Alliance Theater. Of course this gave them something in common to discuss, and they talked until the show started. At the intermission and again when the play was over, Amanda helped her with her sweater. Her hands were knarled and swollen and she said she had been suffering from Arthritis for more than 20 years.

Since we went to the play on opening night, there was a gathering afterward to meet and greet with the cast and have desserts. They had this most awesome carrot cake and it was like a magnet drawing me to it, but Amanda helped me resisit. After we got home, I thanked her - I felt a small victory in resisitng the temptation.

Saturday morning the bill came due. Great pain, so much stiffness, I couldn't get out of bed. Just reached over and took my pills plus breakthrough pain pills and laid there. Never even turned on the TV, talked to anyone on the phone - nothing. I finally woke up at 2:40 PM and thought it was still morning. So, I missed a day. But it was worth it. I would do it again.

Holding Every Thought Captive

It's a verse I learned as a child and have 'always' known:

2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

While I was swimming the other day, I was meditating and praying as I usually do during my swims, and this verse came to me as I was praying about an issue that's been bothering me a lot lately. It occured to me that everything that comes out of my mouth starts out as a thought. So I have started 'holding the thoughts captive', like holding them up to the light and looking really hard at them before I allow them to go from my brain and out my mouth. What HUGE improvement this has made. Many, many times, when I hold the thought up to the light I get the answer to not release the thought into words. In other words, I keep my mouth shut. Many other times, when I hold the thought up to the light, I am given a different way or even just a different tone to use when I verbalise the thought. Sometimes, I am given something totally different to say than the original thought.

I think this must be what my Dad has done all of his life. He is a man of few words, but the words he says are always meaningful and wise. I know that James is his favorite book, and it talks about taming the tongue, so maybe that is another place where he draws strength.

In any case, it's working for me and I am grateful.