A Moving Experience

Many people I know are moving. I have five new addresses for family members to change in my address book. Last year at this time, we were involved in one of life’s greatest stressors—selling our house and buying a new one. Fall of 2011 is a complete blur. We spent day after beautiful day digging through our attic and basement–sorting, discarding, packing, and reminiscing. Dealing with realtors, appraisers, inspectors, and contractors took up the rest of our time and energy. Whew! It makes me tired just writing about it. What is accomplished in one hour on Home & Garden Television (HGTV) took us much longer to achieve—and we are not done yet. There are still boxes to open and closets to organize. When we add up all the pluses and minuses of our moving adventure, it remains for us a good decision and positive move. Why did we put ourselves through the frustration and work?  We needed to simplify our lives, and by doing so, freed up more time for hobbies and ministry in our church and community. 

In the next two weeks, our church people are moving to a transitional location while our new church building is under construction. Our existing property and building was bought by a company that is constructing housing for the exploding student population at Kennesaw State University. Our congregation bought its acreage seventeen years ago for $39,000 per acre and sold it for $500,000 per acre. I like God’s kind of inflation. We have grown comfortable in our present building and location, so there will some adjustments to make—but lots of new opportunities as well. The senior adults in our church are some of the most excited about the move. Often seniors are stereotyped as people unwilling to change, but ours have embraced it.

Don’t be afraid to keep moving on,

For what was before, now has gone,

God wants to accomplish so much more,

But we need to move forward in the Lord.

© By M.S. Lowndes, Based on Isaiah 43:18-19

An Archeological Dig

I know I am not the only person who wishes that their parents or that beloved grandmother took the time to write down the family genealogy or family history. All too soon, memories fade, health fails, and the legacy dies with the passage of time. My goal is to make sure that doesn’t happen for our children and grandchildren. Rick Warren writes in his book, The Purpose Driven Life, “You owe it to future generations to preserve the testimony of how God helped you to fulfill his purposes on earth. It is a witness that will continue to speak long after you are in heaven.”

This week the final edit of my life story, Born Three Times, is winging its way to my publishing company. I anticipate a paperback and e-book release sometime before Christmas. In order to build momentum for my book, I am giving away a free copy to the first twenty people in the USA who agree to write a review of my book for Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. You can sign up on my Facebook fan page entitled Frieda Dixon, Author. Enter those words at the top of your Facebook page and my author page will be an option to select. Post a comment on the page telling me you want a free copy and provide your email address. If you don’t want to write a review, click LIKE on my fan page so I will know you have found it.

Now that my book is nearing publication, Charles and I are starting a new archeological dig. Together we will stake out his life and dust off the layers of memories to discover his history and what makes him tick. While I sit at the computer, he relays his earliest childhood memories. I am amazed that our backgrounds contain so many similarities—yet enough differences to make our life interesting. For instance, both of our fathers did not finish high school, but were very skillful in woodworking and fixing things.  Charles didn’t apply himself in school until his high school years, whereas I was always studious. Our working title for his memoir is: Reaching for the Sky. From earliest childhood, Charles has been fascinated by aviation. His story will relate his journey from flying paper airplanes to inventing modifications for military aircraft and everything in between.