Do You Have a Bulletin Board?

I've always had a bulletin board somewhere in my house and when I was working I had one in the office too. The one at work was typical and had work stuff on it but the one at home has changed over the years.

When I was in my 20's & 30's and I had small children my bulletin board had phone numbers for The Poison Control Center, the pediatrician, several babysitters and both grandmothers. The most important ones there were the grandmothers - they knew everything I wanted to ask The Poison Control Center and the pediatrician, and occasionally they babysat. It also had birthday party invitations, dance and gymnastics lessons schedules, football/baseball/whatever the heck sports season it was schedules, and the daily lunch menu for all schools in town. Sometimes there was a sock looking for a mate pinned on there, an extra pair of shoelaces and a picture colored by one of the children saying, "I Love Mama" on it.

When I was in my 40's & 50's the bulletin board changed some. It still had schedules on it but they were for grandchildren's visits or recitals. It still had telepone numbers on it but they were for my best friends, the plumber, the electrician and the church. And of course my mother and Jerry's mother. There was an occasional quote or Bible verse that I thought was memorable and an advertisement for a play that was coming to a nearby city. Sometimes there was even a picture colored by one of the children saying, "I Love Grandma" on it. I was in the heyday of my organizing phase so there was monthly menu list and a typed grocery list, alphabetical, so I could just put a check mark by something when I ran out of it. I even had a brochure on there showing a dozen different ways to wear a scarf.

Now that I'm in my 60's the familiar bulletin board has changed once again. My current bulletin board is above my desk and is covered with a plethora of both needful things and loved things. It's a little heavy on the needful things. There are business cards for the Primary Care Physician, the Gynocologist, the Optometrist, the Cardiologist, the Dentist, the Physical Therapist and the Dermatologist. Good grief. There are directions for simple things to do on the computer like: how to clean off your cookies, how to defrag, and how to make a degree sign to put on the oven temperature of a recipe. There are reminders of things I'm supposed to do like mail my gift for the Valentine Swap and get a haircut.

The loved things on my bulletin board are relatively simple. There are John Wesley's "Rules of Life" right above Oswald Chambers' definition of faith. There's a card where I wrote the significance of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh so I could explain Jesus' three gifts to my grandchildren and a short little reminder...."Jesus knows me. This I love." There's a question that I try to remember each day, "What respects God most & reflects His ways?" And there are business cards and post cards and greeting cards from blog friends and a bookmark from an old high school friend. Oh and there's my name tag from the last mission trip I took!

It seems that bulletin boards are more than just a place to put the little reminders of daily life. They are representations of where we are in our life - mothers with young children, busy women with a long to-do list, aging women who's priorities have changed and solidified. As I look at my bulletin board tonight I am strangely at peace...at peace with where I am and where I have been. I loved those early bulletin boards; they were fun and chaotic and almost primeval. I loved the middle age bulletin boards. They were the picture of who I wanted to be - a strong, busy, important and loving woman. But this bulletin board - it's my favorite of all. It's the sign of who I am now. I am a woman who loves the Lord and who has lived her life loving Him and loving her family. I have done all the things that were really important to me when they were important and I still have a few more on my "next year" list. This, my friends, is contentment.

Will you share with us what's on your bulletin board?