G-Shocks, Storybooks, Mrs. Beasely Dolls, And Evel Knievel

You can chalk it all up to nostalgia. My husband recently purchased a G-Shock watch through Ebay. We stopped to pick up the mail on our way to town. He couldn’t wait to see it – so I opened it while he drove. He spent the next 24 hours obsessing over it.

It was just like the one he’d had as a kid.

I can’t criticize. The book on my office shelf was one of my recent Ebay purchases. I had a picture book just like it as a child. The artwork by Francis Hook still takes me back to my early years. The book cost one cent on Ebay – the shipping over five dollars. It was totally worth it.

Our memories are powerful. Our early memories are, perhaps, the most powerful of all.

That is one reason why God exhorts parents to raise up a child in the way he should go – for when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6).

Form a child in the ways of the faith, and he will feel that same faith calling to him as the years go by.

He will long for it – like my husband longed for a watch just like the one he had as a child.

She will want to see it again – touch it again – remember what it was like to turn the pages of time and go back, just as I felt about that Francis Hook storybook.

What holds sentimental memories for you?

A Shawn Cassidy album that you played over and over when you were thirteen?

Evel Kneviel on a motorcycle because it reminds you of the time you saw him jump the Snake River?

A Mrs. Beasley doll like the one Buffy had on A Family Affair?

Those are powerful memories. The images take you back – they don’t seem to let you go. We must plant seeds of faith in our children and grandchildren. We must take them to Mass, teach them to make the Sign of the Cross and bless themselves with Holy Water, show them how to genuflect. We must walk with them to the statue of the Blessed Mother, present her with fresh flowers and other gifts of love. We must have sacred spaces in our homes. A place where the Sacred Heart is enthroned. We must teach them to pray. Treasure their baptismal and first communion gowns.

We must teach them to know, to serve, and to love Jesus Christ – deeply.

We must make the faith a part of their lives.

And when they are older – when they are in their forties and fifties and sixties – they will remember. They will long for that faith they once held dear.

Their fingers will seek the holy water font. Their eyes will long to see the Blessed Mother statue. When they see flowers in the store, they will remember how you always saved a few from the bouquets their father gave you – just for the vase near Mary.

They will long to drop to their knee and genuflect.