My mother was a quilter. I was recently looking at a quilt she made for me and I remembered her sorting through scaps from our clothes, cutting pieces with templates, quilting by hand. I am also a quilter, but did not learn this skill from her. I don't remember if I just wasn't interested, or if she offered to teach me and in typical teenage fashion, I said no. All I know is that instead, years later, I learned from other people.
I wonder what, if I had been willing, she would have taught me. How my quilting would be different today.
As I was thinking about this, I realized that all it takes is one generation to forget a skill, to lose a way of life. I don't know how to plant and tend a garden, to do simple auto repair, or to wire a house for electricity (!)...all things my parents could do.
But something they did teach me was that God loves me, that I'm a sinner and unworthy but that Jesus died for me, and that because of His death and Resurrection I am able to call God my father, to be in His presence now and for eternity.
How quickly we can lose this way of life, too. We see it in the Bible all the time, a godly generation followed by a corrupt generation. Our faith is more important than this. We must teach our children and grandchildren about God, about what we believe and why we believe it. Or the next generation won't know, or, like my quilting, they will learn it from someone else and it may or may not be the Truth.
So go...tell your children and grandchildren, tell them a story, take them on a journey, tell them about God....teach them to quilt.
