i have a sweet younger friend, uncanny colleen, who has written
a precious letter to her five year old son. how much will he
cherish an entire letter all about him? i could imagine her reading
this to him at his rehearsal dinner in 20 years, even though he still
thinks he is going to marry his mommy.
this reminded me that hans' dad wrote him a letter everyday of his
freshman year at college. those sweet notes of encouragement are
bundled up next to the ones my grandma had written me. if we
treasure them so, why don't we write more of them ourselves?
i now realize that my email encouragements to our five children
cannot replace a hand written letter. a beautiful sheet of paper can
be taped to the bathroom mirror or cradled between the pages of
their bible. emails are too easily deleted and forgotten.
when shelby was seven, we chuckled at a note she wrote hans in
her careful cursive.
"dear pappy,
we are so proud of the way
you have led us through.
love,
shelby"
last Christmas, 17 years later, she hand stitched it onto fabric on
which she had sewn perfectly straight lines to look like notebook
paper.
love,
lea
"simon peter, a servant and messenger of Jesus Christ, sends
this letter to those who have been given a faith as valuable as
yours, in the righteousness of our God . . ." 2 peter 1:1
37 comments:
Shelby's letter/stitchery is priceless!
Hope you have a very nice week Lea.
I was thinking only the other day of how before phone calls got cheap my Mum wrote me a letter very week and I in turn wrote to her ... but we didn't keep them. What a treasure trove of historic information they would have contained ... though I do remember her letters annoying me on many occasions when we were not seeing eye to eye .. would be interesting to see if they still annoy me today.
That is about the sweetest thing I've ever seen! What a treasure from Shelby's heart straight to her dad's! Priceless.
I'm always digging around in the boxes of similar little jewels from our kids. They sure bring a lot of smiles.
I love this, Lea! A grat way to begin the week.
She was a perceptive 7-year-old, wasn't she? So fortunate that you all hung onto the note, and what a creative way to give that treasure the prominence it deserves.
That's so lovely. But I think you're wrong where your blog notes are concerned.
The kids can easily print them out and use them as normal paper letters. Also, if you wanted to make your blog posts look like handwriting, there's a way to change that too!
I love this, Lea! How special! You have made my heart smile this morning. Cheri
Oh that is totally heartwarming!
I love it and if I were crafty enough, I'd put something like this together with my father's famous letters to me at camp ("We sold your bed at a garage sale and bought you a cot.")
And so true - nothing replaces the written letter. Well, except a beautifully stitched one! :)
Lea this made me teary in a good way. I'm really missing my Daddy. John used to write a little note with a verse and sneak it into the kids lunch boxes. This is one of their best memories of their childhood.
I have signed and sealed letters to each of my children awaiting them in their baby books.
I no longer remember what they say, but they were my thoughts and prayers for them on the day they were born, their first birthday and their first day of school.
I have no idea, yet, when I will allow them to open them. Or even let them know of their existence. Eighteenth birthdays, graduations, and rehearsal dinners have all come to mind....
Letter writing is definitely a dying artform.
Love this post. It makes my heart smile.
Love,
Dawn
You always post the most precious and thought provoking post!
I love this...and I have been thinking the same about handwritten letters. My four year old wants to get something in the mail!
I also have noticed that the notes and cards between my husband and I have diminished...but I did enjoy dragging the old one up during my post on my youth...all those young feelings come back.
I did write a long letter to our first born on his 25th birthday...now what he did with it I will never know...girls seem to hang on to things more.
Thanks for the encouragement...I think I am going to go write to my kids and hubby!
I still love receiving notes and cards in the mail with my name handwritten on the envelope. Thank you for sharing your treasure; it speaks much about your family. Blessings.
dawn! what a beautiful idea! maybe you
could give the letters at the birth of their
own babies.
I LOVE the idea - at the birth of their firstborn.
Are you on a roll? My youngest is 11. I have the dried petals (and a few intact roses) from the flowers her Dad sent me at her birth. Would love to incorporate them as "something old" in her wedding. Any other brilliant ideas?
Dawn
How beautiful!
For me nothing can replace the feeling I get when I receive a handwritten letter.
I love what Shelby has done with her childhood letter... a treadure to passed down through the generations to come. Truly a precious gift! xo HHL
Loving this!
What a lovely thing to do with her note to her Dad, I love that. You know what, I have always been a note writer. One of the things that has really got to me, when my brothers and my sister was going through my Mom's house after her death, they found my notes. It embarrassed me so much. But it must have meant something to them for them to keep them all of those years. But at least I know they could read back over the years, how much I loved them. So that is what is always important.
I write my kids all of the time. I always want them to know how much they have meant to my life. I hate to think what I might have been without them.
wow... the letter is so cool.. what an awesome idea...
Blessings,
Ruth
You are so right about deleting and soon forgetting emails! Even one's that meant a lot to us. It has been SO long since I have written a real letter. Maybe it is time again.
My Grandpa wrote me a letter not long before he died...it is in my bible, and cherished to this day.
That's so sweet. I remember when my son, who thought he would marry me someday too, came to me when he was 7 and with tears in his eyes told me he couldn't marry me because he had a girlfriend whose name was Jodi. lol
My Seth always thought he would
marry me, too. Isn't that just
so sweet when little boys think
that? I have written he and his
brother letters at various times
in their lives. Shaun's I have
saved for when he can read them
and Seth has saved his own.
Shelby's letter stitched for
her dad is, as Mildred said,
priceless.
Love,
Sandy
Swwet letters and a good reminder of what is really important.
Oh my, what a precious gift that is! I have a collection of old letters from family and friends that are dear to me. When my grandmother passed away I inherited all the letters I had written to her. They are tucked away in a pretty tin. I love how your daughter did this one in needlework for her daddy...:)
What a sweet daughter you have!
xoxo Gloria
That letter is sooo sweet!
Thanks for the reminder today...off to find some paper and a pen. xoxoxox
Beautiful post, thank you for sharing. Blessings.
Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving your heart felt comment....My heart is always made lighter by knowing there are so many wonderful ladies out there in blogland.....
More to the point tho.....do you think there will come a day when letter writing will go the way of the dinosaur
I HOPE NOT!! (O:(O:
Xo
Jo
Shelby is a sweetheart, I can tell. I totally agree with you that there is no replacement for a handwritten note or card, which we can tape up and look at often. I am a fan of email but for quick exchange of info. For emotion, give me snail mail.
Oh it looks like real paper, real lines and real handwriting ~
We do know the sentiments and heartfelt effort is there always, in any form ♥
You are too funny...want to meet for long distance "chia tea"?
Have a great day...love you...and Hi back!!!
That's AWESOME! And an area I am REALLY bad at. I used to write letters long ago but now it's strictly email! I will encourage you, though, with the thought that after my husband died, I was able to go through and find a lot of his old emails and they were such a blessing and an encouragement to me! And he would NEVER have written letters out by hand even before emai.
I really do need to do more letter writing activities for grandparents and grandchildren with my grandkids, though! Thanks for your sweet family memories and some great ideas. :)
Lea,
How precious:) I have a friend who has a journal for each of her two boys. She says she was never good at the scrapbooking or finishing the baby books so she ended up with journals.. priceless :) (It's on my to do list for our boys!)
Thank you for your encouraging "notes"-they truly brighten my day :) Today was official homeschool day 2: wonderful! Yesterday, day 1: terrible...tears (fortunately only from mommy and the 17month old!) Satan was hard at work but we took to telling him to get out and the day ended well. God's grace :)
hugs
Thanks for reminding me of the importance of a hand wirtten letter. Carla
Precious....so precious. What a gift.
Be blessed...Oh, you already are!
Michelle
Oh so very precious...what a lovely gift to this tender heart that will be treasured for so very long...
...blessings dear one...Rosie...
Lea, this brings tears to my eyes. What a wonderful daughter, thanking her Pappy for doing the job God entrusted to him. Dave often tells me it's his job to protect me; I tell him it's my job to take care of him. So many would look askance at such speech but we're so happy in our jobs and take them seriously.
I think that might be the sweetest gift ever! And cuter than cute.:)
Oh I love the letter! This is a wonderful reminder for me to write more. Thank you.
Londen
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