I was raised in a single-wide trailer until I was about 10 years old, and from there my family purchased an old one-bedroom home on a beautiful corner lot in my hometown.
Seemingly overnight, I married my high school sweetheart, moved away from home and became unbelievably successful. That success allowed my wife, our son and me to live in multiple luxurious homes worth millions of dollars.
After many lessons learned regarding financial downfalls, recessions, depressions and every other unexpected life experience, I find myself back in my hometown teaching at a local college. My wife and I rented an old farmhouse in the middle of a corn field, and I’m not sure why! However, as soon as I saw it, I knew it was where I wanted to live, but my wife unfortunately didn’t share my enthusiasm.
I talk a lot about my relationship with God and occasionally I am absolutely positive about an option I have in my life, and I know it is God giving me that confidence to arrive at a decision that really makes no sense to anyone else but me.
Thinking back about my life, I was happiest while in that one-bedroom house with my mom, dad and brother. That is when neighbors knew each other, and you knew your family because you shared a 650-square-foot home with one bathroom.
My son was raised in 4,000-square-foot homes with four bathrooms and seven acres of land. We hardly saw each other unless we made appointments to go out to eat or ride in a car together to an event, even though we all lived in the same house.
I’ve figured out that God may want us to know our neighbors and to occasionally share a bathroom with a sibling. I miss family reunions and sitting on a back porch with my grandmother.
Where did these days go and do they exist anywhere any longer?