Did I Really Birth 7 Children?

Today is our son's 14th birthday!

Born in 2012, I went into labor on October 28th during the World Series game between the Tigers and the San Francisco Giants. The Giants ended up winning the series, and I ended up winning by birthing a sixth child on the 29th.

As I was scrolling through FB posts having prompted the feed to be "Posts with Teddy", my memories were triggered and I was able to see so many lovely moments in time spent as a family. I even came across this cute toddler test he took at 4 years old (Facebook Post, November 07, 2016):

No coaching them, just ask and write the response down:

•What is your name?

Teddy

•How old are you?

Four

•When is your Birthday?

It was a long time ago, and I had a corn cake - a cake with corns in it and I love my mom, goodbye.

•How old is Mama?

Like 6

•How old is Dada?

Like 4 - no, he's 6 too.

•What is your favorite color?

Green, green is my favorite color.

•What is your favorite food?

Cheese

•Who is your best friend?

Hmmm... I have a couple best friends, I don't remember their names though.

•What is your favorite song?

I have a couple favorite songs, I don't know what they are called... Mom, what does 'this song is my jam' mean?

•What is your favorite animal?

A bear, since I'm a bear.

•What are you scared of?

I'm scared of jumping super high.

•What makes you happy?

You make me happy

•Where is your favorite place to go?

To Disneyland... Can we go to Disneyland TODAY???

•What do you want to be when you grow up?

I wanna be a ballet dancer when I grow up.

•What does love mean?

Love means I love you. Love means that I love you. I love you mom. You were saying?

What I realized while looking through my old posts on Facebook, is that I have been depending on using Social Media as my life journal. It was really great to be able to log in and source all these memories, but they are only accessible to me, and they are only in cyberspace, which means even though I have all these great and wonderful memories they are vaulted and what I feel the Lord speaking to me this morning is that it is time to transition away from being "vaulted" to curating a museum of memories.

ARE YOU A VAULT OR MUSEUM?

When we vault our past experiences and memories, we lock them up and keep the combination code, or key all for ourselves however when we begin curating and collecting our memories to put them on display, we are expecting others to come and see what has been done in our lives.

The design trend for years has been to have little or no personal photos on your walls or on your countertops and I am beginning to see why. It must be because we have become serial vault makers, and it is time to get back to displaying our memories in our homes, churches, and our offices.

What happened to the cluttered "Employee of the month" wall, or the embarrassing photos going up the stairs? How about the bowls of matchbooks or the trunks full of kids toys in the living room? Heading to Grandma's house and seeing my Uncles ships or my Dad's etched glass window hanging from when he was in school was all the "media" I ever needed to see and be able to understand we had a history.

A DYSTOPIAN SOCIETY

I worry a bit about the future of a society that does nothing but live in sterile homes and vaults their moments and memories. I wonder if in the future grandkids will go to visit Grandma and Grandpa and walk right into hallways with full size screens where the screen will recognize their retinas and begin showing them Tiktoks, FB posts, and pictures of their family's past while standing in a cold and empty room. Nothing to touch, nothing to feel, footage of life without life.

This to me, this is apocalyptic and an end-of-the-world by way of an end to "life as we know it". People living in houses where no one keeps physical mementos but relies solely on content to record their memories for posterity. A quest for a type of sanitary clean which actually removes the humanity from the home.

Audio and video messages are awesome (don't get me wrong I am co-host on two separate Podcasts being recorded for posterity), but how about we begin to substantiate those recordings by way of remembering that those who make content... are people too and being human means being messy and messes MAKE memories.

Holy Spirit-

Thank you for bringing us Teddy Bear. He is the sweetest soul. He loves You with all his heart and was a gift from You on my 35th birthday. I can't believe I birthed 7 children! It is still remarkable to me, and I was there! Haha. You have a wonderful sense of humor, entrusting me to lead and raise children (as an only child myself) and I still wonder if You made the right choice! I learn more from them each and everyday than I could ever teach them, and yet You continue to give me wisdom on how to encourage and uplift them. As we celebrate Teddy today with Grandpa and Grandma, I pray for his future. I pray he would feel loved. That he would continue to hold You in his heart. That he would develop the ability to know what it is like to desire to seek You first and Your Kingdom and receive all of the benefits of Your blessing. Thank You - I love You - thank you for an amazing and fun filled day!

Sincerely with love in Jesus' name - AMEN

-Jessicah

On the agenda today:

• Celebrate Teddy!

About the Author: Jessica Heilman is Co-Founder, Designer and Writer for 15Evergreen.com. You can learn more about her as well as her daughter Madeline, their ministry work and their company by clicking this link: ABOUT US