Birthdays



Once in a while I sit down here at my keyboard, prepared to post my latest inspirational story, and something moves me to change it up a little.  Mostly I enjoy the short stories of others to start my day in a positive way.  Through the search for the story and then the time to find a scripture that goes along with it, I find my day off in a good way.  I'm prepared to face the challenges and successes of the day!

The first thing that I do is to check my friends on Facebook.  I share birthday wishes and send messages to friends and family.  Then I begin work, for me. 

Today as I checked with my Facebook friends, several of my school mates had posted birthday wishes to the state of Kansas.  To quote an old advertisement, "Ahhh, Kansas!"  I spent the biggest part of my life in Kansas so it is home for me.  My parents, brothers and sister, aunts, uncles and cousins still live there and I don't live far away, just across the state line to the north. 

My friends in Nebraska shake their heads and grin at me when I talk about Kansas.  I can tell them about Kansas history because we studied it every year in preparation for the birthday of the state.  When I taught in public school, it was one of my favorite subjects to teach the children.  We would take the entire month of January to read, study and reenact the stories of how we came to be.  And on January 29 we would get on a bus and visit the capitol building in Topeka. I loved it and the kids I taught, many years ago, still remember what we learned as they tell me about those memories when we visit.

So, you ask, why is this Kansas history such a big deal?  Because it's MY history.  It's those events, those people that helped to create the me that I am today.  Think about it...all of those things came together to form each one of us at the right time.  My friends here in this area don't show those roots.  They talk a lot about their football team but mostly they don't talk about their history, unless they're an historian.  I don't see that sense of pride in their great state that you find in those of us from the state just south.

History is important, whether it's state history, country history, or your own personal history.  Examining the past explains the present and prepares the way for the future.  Hopefully, there are lessons learned and skills inherited. 

I was fortunate to be raised in a family where not only our history was important, but the state and country in which we lived were also important.  I look forward to my birthday every year, and I look forward to the state's birthday.  January 29, I will remind my friends today that today is Kansas' birthday.  It's a great place! 

Ahhhh, Kansas!!

“For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out. For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding?"

Job 8:8-10 ESV