Making a Difference

I am writing this April 10th and on the news they are reporting strong storms and tornadoes in the midwest. I am praying for those folks this morning that all will be safe. Things can be replaced but people cannot.

Who made a difference in your life?

Are there any people in your life who have made a difference in who you are today? I can think of several. I am grateful for my parents who raised me in a loving Christian home. I often tell my friends that my life was boring as "nothing" ever happened while I was growing up. My days were very stable and predictable and routine. My parents celebrated their 60th year of marriage this past February. I have 7 brothers and sisters.. all of us are happily married. All of us have children. There are no divorces in my immediate family and that includes aunt and uncles and I have A LOT of them (my mother is oldest of 13 children and my father is one of 7 kids). Its only when you get to cousins when divorce appears in the family.

What made the difference?

That's pretty amazing considering today's divorce rate is over 50%. Why do I think our family was so stable? I think it had to do with our religious upbringings. As far as I know, all my aunts/uncles, grandparents, parents, brothers/sisters (except 1), nieces/nephews are all actively involved with their churches. Most of them belong to the Church of the Brethren faith which is very common in the state of PA where the majority of them live in the Lancaster and Lebanon Co. areas.

Deaf Friends make the difference too

I am also grateful to my many Deaf friends who welcomed me into their world when I made the gradual step over from the hearing world. They tolerated with patience my slow - often with mistakes - attempts at ASL and this is still a learning process. I will never be expertly skilled at ASL as I did not grow up with this language but I do have enough knowledge to communicate clearly with almost any Deaf person. Those who are pure ASL and do not mouth at the same time remain challenges to me. I do depend on lip reading still. An old old habit from growing up in an oral world that has served me well.

I hope in some ways I make a difference in other people's lives. I tend to be a positive person who sees the glass half full. I have a strong belief in the future and know I can depend on my Lord to take care of me.

I care about you. Thank you.

I want to thank all those who made a difference in my life. Most of them will never read this post as some of them don't have a computer, etc but I'm going to start telling these people face to face over the next few days or weeks as I see them that they made a difference and I appreciate them. So happy the Lord crossed our paths during this journey here on earth! I am TRULY Blessed!!!