Being Presbyterian

I hope the title of this blog won't send my Baptist readers off to another blog before they read me today.  Wait....I'm not sure I have any Baptist readers.  I'm not even sure I know that many Baptists.  Whatever.  Be forewarned.  I will speak of Presbyterians today.  Hang around if you dare.

I've never known any other life.  As far back as I can trace my family we are Presbyterians.  The family bible, going back to the 1880's speaks of someone getting married in the"kirk" in Missouri.  Kirk is the Scottish word for church.  Yes, Scot Presbyterian.  I married a Lutheran who quickly and without much thought became Presbyterian.  His father was full-blooded German, as was my mother. We are totally and purely White Anglo-Saxon Protestants.

This is not to say we are closed-minded about it.  Presbyterians are very open to other ways of worship and relationships with the Creator.  And I'm one of the most open-minded.  Liberal. In fact, I am very nominally Presbyterian. I could probably be a Quaker if they had them out here in the East Texas woods.

But last week with July 4th it was positively  patriotic to be Presbyterian if you read your history.  The British referred to the Revolutionary War as the Presbyterian Revolt.  The only minister to sign the Declaration of Independence was John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian.  I could go on and on.

So I will.

Next week 300 or so Presbyterian high school youth will descend on Tulsa, Oklahoma for my favorite week of the year.  Alas, I won't be with them.  I found another gig.  The  middle schoolers will be at a different camp in central Texas, my granddaughter included.  So that's where I will be energizing and playing. I've only traded one Presbyterian event for another.

If you're still with me after all those boring details let me make a confession..  I don't really have much of a blog today.  We've had a whirlwind two weeks filled with other events.  One neighbor moved out.  I cleared out the balance of their debris via a long distance request.  ("I don't care what you do with it, just get rid of it.") Another neighbor moved in. We spent some time making friends with each other. This took some time as they have four kids, 2 dogs, 2 goats, 2 geese, and a whole flock of chickens, including a rooster.  That is the one sound that has been missing out here in paradise: the sound of a rooster crowing. I think we will enjoy each other. 

Inspired by all that moving, I cleaned out our storage building.  In the process I realized my daughter's 40th birthday is coming up and I wanted to give her the journal I kept when she was born.  But we've got about 40 boxes of "stuff" and I can't find the journal.

You can see I've been too busy for any smidge of wit or wisdom to find me. So I decided to refer you to some of my own favorite blogs so at least you'd have something interesting to read even if it didn't come from me. 

And, to my great surprise, I found out they're all Presbyterian.  I swear I did not know that about them before I started reading them.  Maybe that says Presbyterians have more interesting lives.  Whatever.  Here they are.  I've got to get out to the storage building before it gets too hot.

Momastery will make you laugh, cry and/or think.  Ree Drummond will make you want to cook (and buy her book.)

I swear I didn't find them by our common ecclesiastical design.  They  became my favorites before I knew this about them. Go read them this morning.  I'm off to go through more boxes.

Oh, wait!  Here's one that I think may not be Presbyterian:

http://thebloggess.com/2011/06/and-thats-why-you-should-learn-to-pick-your-battles/

However, she just might be Presbyterian.  Not my grandmother's kind, but surely a good candidate. We would take her at our church.

Don't look for a blog next week because there's no signal at Mo Ranch.  I'll be back in two weeks with what I learned at camp.