I STILL WANT TO GO TO MY HOME :)

The girls and I have been gone pretty much since the end of May. We/they went to two leadership camps, a Bible camp, to see Caiti, Tank, and Kynslee, to see my parents, to see Mark's parents, to see some friends. Overall we had a great time, but we were ready to get home. Cassidy especially. She started saying a few weeks ago, "I just want to go home and sleep in my bed." It reminded me of a bulletin article I wrote when she was only two so I thought I would reprint it here.

“I WANT TO GO TO MY HOME”

     Recently the girls and I were gone for a little over four weeks (which in kid years has to be at least 6 months).   The first week went okay; they were happy to see their grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great aunts.   But one night nearing the end of the week, Cassidy looked up at me as I was putting her to bed and said, "I want to go to my home."   She wasn't whining or crying.   It was just a simple statement with a slight emphasis on the word "my."   I explained to her that we couldn't, but that her daddy would be coming up soon to be with us.   That was the end of that for a few days.   But for the rest of the trip, every few days, Cassidy would stop what she was doing and say, "I want to go to my home."   We'd acknowledge her and try to explain how much longer we would be gone, and she would go on to other things.  Finally on the last Monday of our trip, I told her that we would be going to her home in four days.  After that she would go around holding up two fingers saying, "We're going to my home in four days."   When we finally got to "her" home (it was 5 AM), Mark got her out of the van and carried her in to bed.  She woke up and narrated the trip, "That's MY truck, that's MY HOUSE!, that's my stairs, that's Ish's room, that's my bed."  She was thrilled to be there.

     Now you might think from this description that Cassidy was miserable the whole time she was gone, but she was not.  She had a ball.   She went to an amusement park, the Alpine Slide, two children's museums, two different ChuckECheese's, the Memphis zoo, goony golf, a park, she rode a horse, played with another Katie and Cassidy, fished, went to the beach, and swam in the pool, came home with a few trillion more toys and clothes, and existed the whole month on nothing more than 'roni, candy, and Cool Whip. But even though she got to do all of these things; many of which she cannot do at home, she still kept reminding us, "I want to go to my  home."   Which got me to thinking that that is the attitude that we all should have about heaven.   Our time here on earth should be spent trying to live as Christ would have us to and  in trying to save others.    The Christian life can be an enjoyable one, which is not to say that we will not have problems--everyone does (Matthew 5:45; Romans 2:11)--but unlike non-Christians our problems will end here.  We have something to look forward to, and we should be.   We need to have a goal (heaven) that we are ever working toward and it should always be in the back of our minds.   As Paul said in Philippians 1:24, "For me to live is Christ to die is gain" and in II Timothy 4:7-8  he said, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness..."   Our time here on earth should be spent trying to live as Christ would have us to and  in trying to save others.   And while we should certainly enjoy our time here on earth, like Paul, we should also long to go to "our" home in heaven.

--Beckye Mosher