This is the first home I remember well. I lived there throughout elementary school.

Photo taken 1999

I loved this home in Tyler, Texas. 1524 Milam Drive. I have some of the best memories there. My mother had flowers planted around the mailbox. Back then, curtains lined our windows, not blinds. 

Our best friend lived at the end of the street—Redessa. I remember sitting in her boat in the garage and us three girls (my sister included) singing “Rock the Boat” … and her parents put on the best Halloween party, even great to a chicken like me. I practiced line dancing to “Le Freak” here because we were learning it and dancing to it for exercise in school. We had dune buggies that we rode down that street, and those were eventually replaced by our bikes. A gas station sat behind our house, and we’d walk, sometimes sneak, there to buy candy. Our neighbor to the left had emphysema, and we loved him. We had honeysuckle growing on our back yard fence.

But do you see that big picture window, to the left of the front door? 

Photo taken around 1976

That was our family room and that’s where I stood and cried when my daddy left our family. I watched him leave, and I’ll never forget that moment. I cried, “Daddy, Daddy … I love you.” Everything changed in that moment, my life spun out of control. And when I see pictures of this beloved house … sadly, that is the memory that overtakes my mind.

But do you see the window just to the right of the front door? That was my bedroom, and that is where I prayed with my mother to receive Jesus into my life. I was welcomed into my forever home, the body of Christ. And that is the memory I’m going to choose to overtake my mind.

I do have a choice.

I went back to that house when my oldest daughter was little, 16 years ago.

O Soul, do you see yourself? What will you choose to see?

To see only the bad is an irresistible temptation. The one who just couldn’t seem to get it right. The one who made so many mistakes. The one who couldn’t have children. The one …

But I’m going to choose to see the one who is blessed. The one blessed with life. The one blessed by adoption. The one given her mini-me of the heart. The one blessed with forgiveness. The one who doesn’t have to get it right.

Father, Father … I love you.

Have you had to choose to see the good over bad? Did good prevail?