Our family has been living in Katherine for 9 months now. It is beginning to feel like home, and since it's not a HUGE town, we are getting to know people around town. Working at the motel for 6 months helped with that, and working at Mission Australia now is helping me get to know more people yet. :) Each person has their own story, and each person has a dream of some sort. They have goals they want to accomplish, things they want to see happen in their lives. It's been neat to cross paths with many of them.
I've also really enjoyed taking bike rides with my children. For the first time in this Mullet family history, we all have bikes! Going on a family bike ride is relaxing (usually...) and the kids love it. Any time I say, "I'm going on a bike ride!" the kids all yell, "Can I come too?" :) It makes my heart happy. It's neat to spend time with them, and it also gives opportunities to teach things like, "Watch for cars. Look out for the person in front of you and behind you--if they fall, help them up. We help each other."
One evening we took a bike ride over to the hospital about 2 km from our house because there's a bike path there. They also have the cemetery 1/2 km from the hospital. I've always been interested in going into grave yards and reading people's headstones. I think about what they might have been like, look at how long they have lived, and read what their family had as their epitaph.
There are so many different messages on the headstones, and each tells a bit of a story: "Beloved Husband and Father" "Beloved Wife and Mother,Dearly Missed" --"Reunited at last."
Some of the graves had Bible verses on the headstones, "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
Some of the grave markers were so worn out with age over the years that it was hard to make out the name on the stone. Some were impossible to make out. Those were the gravestones that made me think the most, and those ones allowed me to teach a lesson to my kids.
Psalm 103 tells us "As for man his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field, the wind blows over it and it is gone. And its place remembers it no more." The truth of that passage became very clear to me. This life is short, before we know it, we'll be just a faded memory. Perhaps no one will remember us in the future. However, there is One who will never forget us. There is One who has everything we will ever do written down in His books. He knows how long we'll be here on this earth, and He loves us. He also gave us a promise:
"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move
you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you
know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
1 Corinthians 15:58
No matter how short my life is, if I am living it for the Lord, I have NOT wasted it. If I am keeping in step with the Spirit, God is glorified and my life is not wasted. Even if everything seems like it's crazy and a bit upside-down, if I'm truly giving my life to Christ, it will all work out. Nothing a believer does by the power of the Holy Spirit is ever wasted. Even if no one remembers or even knows AT ALL, our Father in Heaven does not forget, and He is honored and glorified through our acts of love and kindness. Even the "little" things, which really aren't as little as we think. May God be glorified in us, His children, as we seek to serve and be a blessing and light in this world.
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