staci_stallings@hotmail.com

Years ago my Saturday nights were planned long before we ever got to
Friday.  My friends and I would go to church, go out to eat with my
parents and then go to my house for a long night of whatever the game of the
season was.  We would stay up long into the night playing Michigan
Rummy, Pictionary, Guesstures, or Scattergories.  More than once a worried
parent called to check up on a child and make sure they were at my
folk's place and not up town running around.  They were always there around
that kitchen table laughing and having a great time.

I don't really remember how the tradition started, or who the first
friends I invited over were.  However, over the years there were a long
line of them.  Theresa. Elaine. Kirsten. Lorelea. Michael. Damian. Mike.
Eventually my younger sister's friends joined us, and there were very
few Saturday nights that our house wasn't an all-out party.
Now mind you, my parents were always there.  In fact, my mom seldom
went to bed before everyone left as she was often the last challenger
standing no matter what the game was.  My dad, on the other hand, had to be
up at 5 a.m. on Sunday morning to go out and milk cows.  More than
once, he rounded the corner, one eye half-opened to stare at us and ask
what we were still doing awake.

We had a lot of good, honest fun in that house, and my friends never
balked at going there instead of driving around looking for trouble.  It
was simply more fun than anything else we could be doing.

Recently I've been looking at my life and realizing that one of my
goals is to point as many people to Heaven as I can through my writing and
through my life.  For awhile it bothered me that maybe I was saying in
that goal that I thought I was the one through which they were going to
get to Heaven.  Of course that wasn't my intent, but there was a
nagging thought that maybe that's how it would be interpreted.

It didn't take a genius, but it did take some soul-searching, to
realize where that thought came from-Satan, the number one instigator of
doubts of all time.  Max Lucado once said that "Satan doesn't want to
convince us, he just wants to confuse us," and that was certainly true in
this case.

It wasn't until I thought back to my high school years and how much fun
we had at my parents that I finally put all the doubts aside.  You see,
I don't think I'm the reason they end up going to Heaven-that is their
choice and their business. However, I am the one who can invite them. 
I figure we'll all be better off in Heaven than out on the streets
somewhere, so once again, my plan is to invite as many people as I can to
join me for a joyous time in my Father's house.  It worked once, I hope
it works again.

Copyright, Staci Stallings 2004

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