Pastor Patricia’s Pauses

As August draws near, I am always excited this time of year. As a kid growing up this was the time of year, I would get new clothes for school and got to buy school supplies. I loved the smell of a new crayon box and I would secretly pray that I could get the box of 64 crayons with the built-in sharpener! Funny how what I value has changed over the years. Today’s students may look forward to a new laptop. Do laptops even have a smell? Times seem simpler back then – but I am sure that is what the generation before me said as well.

As I sit and write this article, we have been back to church now for two Sundays. I never realized how I enjoyed the singing part of worship. I have always liked music, but when we could not sing the first Sunday it seemed like a very low energy service. I was grateful that Mark Calhoun, our new district superintendent, gave us permission to have our choir sing. Now I know that church is about worshipping God but singing comes from a place in my heart that cannot be expressed any other way. Thank God for music!

Each Sunday so far, we have had a few more people join us, and I hope that trend continues. I have missed seeing everyone but understand why we were not able to get together. Also, this pandemic has shown me how tough we are as a group of people. We endured whatever we needed to in order to be able to come back again in person.

My house will be a bit quieter this Fall as our twins will be going off to college. These past few weeks they have been planning what to bring. I never realized how expensive it is to get kids off to college, especially TWO! And that is not even counting the tuition, books or room and board! I do remember the excitement that I felt to finally get off on my own. Moving away taught me many life lessons that you could not learn in a book.

And so, as we enter Fall, and getting back to routine, I pray that we are all refreshed by the summer and I pray that we never have to go through another one with social distancing! Welcome cooler weather and changing leaves!