Christian Living

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Back to Basics
By Shannon Anicas

Long ago, when I was a child, I used to sit with a flashlight under the covers so that I could be transported back to the days of Little House on the Prairie. The rough floors, the smell of Pa smoking meat, the feel of dirt on your hands and sore muscles from a hard days work were described with such detail that you could feel the drops of sweat on their foreheads.

I have always wanted to experience that life but the closet I came was growing up in the country (albeit in the 1980’s not the 1880’s) and a visit to Mansfield, Missouri to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s last homestead. I also took every chance I could to visit Hopewell Village in Pennsylvania when ever we went there to see my cousins. They reenacted in full costume a time in the late 1800’s.

I don’t know why I have always loved this time period, but I have. I still read Laura’s stories and watch the old television show from my youth. I just discovered the Hallmark channels movie series Love Comes Softly, Loves Enduring Promise and Love’s Long Journey. And again found myself wishing I was there discovering the land with them.

I think it is because it makes me want to be a better person which has for the most part always meant having the best of everything, the best clothes, the best things, the best cars, but never the best soul.

I look around my apartment and see the stacks of clutter and wonder why I bought this, that or the other. Sure it made me feel better at that moment that I bought it, but now it sits on a shelf or in a closet and does nothing for me. And the money I used to buy it could have instead gone to something else, like a savings for a new home or to pay off the piles of bills we had. But I am beyond guilty of trying to feed this vast hole that I have inside with stuff, possessions, food (not because I am hungry but because I am empty) things that fill the hole for a moment but nothing that is long lasting or permanent.

A big part of me wants to sell it all and start over living a much simpler life. One where I cook from scratch, read more and watch less, play with my kids instead of play video games with them. But in today’s world that is moving at the speed of light, how can we slow it down and get back to basics.

We are constantly told that we have to have this big screen television or must see this latest movie or own this way too expensive outfit to be a better person. We have makeover shows that say we aren’t good enough as who we are so lets be someone else. We have plastic surgery to fix our perceived problems and gadgets to fill our time and keep our schedules. But what do we do to fix that hole in our soul?

Some fill it with possessions, others with food or drink to fill it. Others drugs, bad relationships and misguided endeavors. While even more fall into various “religions” that suit our needs instead of us serving His.

I have never been an overly religious person and grew up in house where religion was not in the vocabulary. I used to sneak off to my neighbors on Sunday so I could go to church with them or just sit around the table reading form the bible. It was a foreign concept to me and I tried to soak it up as best I could when ever I could.

I made a promise to a dear friend as she was dieing that I would find religion, mainly hers so that her funeral wouldn’t be the only time I found myself in church. So I started studying and became Catholic, against my parents will. In looking back I did it for the wrong reasons, which would explain why I didn’t follow the teachings and lead a good life. I did it out of guilt for her death, to fall into a certain crowd of friends and to anger my family.

Life and belief in a higher power doesn’t need a church to sit in or a class to attend it just needs an open heart and a willing mind to do what is right and just. That is what those stories I read meant, it just took me this long to hear what they are saying.

And maybe now, that hole in my soul won't be so empty anymore.


Endnote: The day I typed this a package from my mother-in-law arrived at my house with Easter goodies for my son and a beautifully wrapped “Marines Bible” for my husband (who is an active duty Marine) and a copy of “Jesus Speaks to Women” for myself. A week later to the day that the package arrived, a copy of Guideposts arrived in my mail box with this contest. Coincidence I think not, divine intervention, definitely.

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