Good Medicine

I remember as a teen, how my mother would come home from shopping with a new outfit for me, and I would be horrified! It was not my style, color etc. I've seen the same look in my son Nick's eyes, when in the store, I hold up a prospective shirt for him to try on. I realize that it is normal for teens to develop different tastes in clothing from their parents. It's all part of becoming the unique person God made him/her to be.

Once again, this all became evident to me this summer.

My parents come out for a visit once a year, and they always come bearing gifts. It is a sweet time of fellowship with them, but some of the things they bring, are...interesting. This year, my parents came for their yearly visit, and my mom brought me two solar-powered lights with a light sensor (so they come on automatically when it becomes dark), a frog whose tummy lights up and a large clear plastic stick that changes color. That horrified feeling from my teens came over me again. Mom bought one of each for my two sisters as well. These were things I planned on leaving in their boxes in the basement, but Mom and Sam got right to putting them together and sticking them in the lawn. Great! Now we will become known as, "the green house on the corner of Wolcott and 3rd with the tacky lawn ornaments."

We visited my youngest sister and her family this summer for the first time in their new home in Chippewa Falls, WI. She told us they wouldn't be home and to just go right in and make ourselves at home. Then she proceeded to give us sketchy directions on how to get there. It was dark by the time we arrived, and so were most of the houses in the neighborhood. I could just see us making ourselves at home in someone's house, thinking it was my sister's and having the family get out of bed and ask us what we were doing in their living room!

And then I saw them! The same frog with his tummy lit and the color changing stick!

"This is it!" I told my husband.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Oh yeah." I confidently replied. "What are the odds that someone else in this town has the same two tacky light-up lawn lights as I do!"

Now I proudly display my "tacky" lawn ornaments. As I walk up to the house in the evening, I admire my, not-so-one-of-a-kind lawn lights and remember what a blessing the family God gave to me really is. If you get bored, take some time to drive by my house in the evening and admire them. You never know.. they could become a Larimore landmark!

Smiling on 3rd Street,

Janna