- Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...
Hopefully every one of you had an amazing Fourth of July weekend! June is a busy time for our family with birthdays, so I never act surprised when Kay tells me that we are attending a birthday dinner for a loved one. A majority of our family lives in Beaumont, so we have been blessed by proximity.
I received a phone call from my brother on Thursday evening and he informed me that he was moving to Yucaipa over the weekend; I was ecstatic! I offered to help him move. I’m the guy that everyone calls when they need help moving ANYTHING, since I always say “Yes!” and since they all know that my little Toyota pick-up is still capable of carrying loads larger than it should. God has blessed me and that little truck!
I was off on Friday, so I was able to meet him in the morning and as I was loading up the boxes at his old place in Grand Terrace, I was just so thankful that he would be moving closer to home. Evan has been all over and I pray that God will keep him close to us until he needs him for his greater purposes elsewhere. I have never realized the importance of the family support system until now.
My family has always supported me and when I married Kay, I was uncertain if her family dynamic shared the same qualities that mine had. It didn't take long to realize that they did! I am still blown away by the continued support our families consistently provide. I remember talking to Kay and asking “Do you think that we could ever move away?” I clearly remember her response and she said “As long as we could relocate the whole family, of course we could!”
I laughed and then thought to myself- the deeper our roots get, the more difficult it will be to move someday.
We love Southern California, but God may call us to move somewhere else some day and I can’t begin to imagine how hard that would be on the family and ourselves. I can remember packing my brother up for college in Utah and I remember that feeling of losing the only adult male role model I had in my life. I am so blessed to have my brother in my life and as I look back at all the fist fights, arguments, and quarrels, I’m reminded that God gave me my brother as a way to help with my own inner refinement. Let’s face it, we are all rough around the edges; Evan and I are a testament to that. People used to call us the “Jesse James Brothers.”
I never knew what to think of the title, but it sounded cool so I always used to just go with it.
I still look up to my brother, as I did when I was a child, and I’m overwhelmed with joy when I’m reminded that the Lord has brought him back to us. God has blessed me with Evan, just as He has blessed me with our family. I am reminded that blessings don’t always take on material form. For us they take on the form of each member of our family, and although we don’t keep in contact with some members of our family, giving grace has been achieved through persistence in prayer. God’s blessing are so abundant, so this week I exhort you to take time out of your busy day to stop, glance at an old family photo, and just thank God for every day He has given to you. We are blessed beyond measure and I am thankful to call you my CPM Family! God Bless and have a great week!
In His Love,
Garrett Castro
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