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Tuesday's Grand Connection Thought
by Mary May Larmoyeux
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When Carnegie Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, was razed almost 50 years ago, Carl Martin picked up 16 limestone drums and loaded them into his pickup truck. According to the January 24, 2009, issue of The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 45 years later, those same 16 drums are back in their original formation of four columns (four drums per column).
They now proudly stand in front of the Main Library in Little Rock because the Martin family donated them to the library. “If you had to buy those drums, Bobby Roberts (the library system’s director) said, “they’d cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to get.”
Well, who would have guessed in 1964 that 16 discarded drums (considered debris by most) would one day be prized treasures?
This story made me think of my legacy and reminds me of the importance of passing down the “pillars” of family history. When I think of my dad, for example, I think of a man of integrity. “When you write a check, Mary,” he told me as a teenager, “it’s a promise that the money is in the bank.”
And Pop’s dad, who was an officer in World War II, was carrying rations in a metal box when he stepped on a land mine. Although the explosion shattered his leg, he lived—thanks, in part to the metal box. Servant-leadership takes on a whole new meaning when I think of this.
Then I think of the story of Pops becoming a Christian, both of our sons’ premature births, my days as a child on “the farm,” … I could go on and on.
I need to write down the stories that portray the character, values, and faith of our grandkids’ forefathers. After all, I don’t want the “columns” of our family to be forgotten ... buried in my mind for decades, if not forever.
A good friend of mine, Karen Jordan, has a blog, Blessed Journal. I love her story "The Treasure." She shares about the difference that one Sunday school teacher made in her life. (Karen and I do a workshop together called “Capturing Your Story.”)
What "columns" hold your family together? One day the family stories we capture will be priceless treasures for a generation we will never see.
Have a great week!
Mary
www.marymaywrites.com
Article © 2009 Mary May Larmoyeux. All rights reserved.
Photo © Erengoksel / Dreamstime.com
