Learning the Rules

One thing that pastors families have in common with other “occupations” such as the military or sales or missionaries, are that we often ‘get’ to move to new places. (Notice that I did not say ‘have’ to move? I think it is important to be sure to use positive wording with sometimes unfavorable topics…especially with our children). I find it interesting that each new country or state or county or town has its own set of “rules” or phrases or traditions that I must learn and embrace in order to “fit in” or even be able to communicate well with the people!


I will start with when we moved to West Tennessee from Texas…which, initially, was somewhat of a culture shock for me.

We had been at our new church for a few months and I was attending a ladies Sunday school class. The odd thing is that I had never been in a Sunday school class that I was not teaching!! I did not become a Believer until I was in high school and did not know that Sunday school even existed…I went to Bible studies but not Sunday school. When I married Ernie and went to our first church in Kingsville, TX I started teaching youth in Sunday school….and have done so ever since.


Back to that day in Sunday school….our precious, lovely, fun teacher was compassionately conveying a very important point and to illustrate she said, “We all know what it’s like to slaughter a hog!!!” Well, dear sisters, this Dallas girl definitely did NOT know how to slaughter a hog, nor did I want to!!

A few other things I learned…When someone says:

• “I’m carrying mom to the doctor” she means she is driving them there.
• “She has been ill for so long I wish she’d get over it” means she has been in a foul mood.
• “I got it at Creekmore’s across the street from the church” she means she got it at the grocery store that was named Creekmore’s….but the name was changed years ago.
• "Hey Brother Ernie!!" they are not referring to him as a biological brother but a brother in Christ. So, why are only ministers called brothers? Why are not women called sisters? I am digressing....
  

Showers/Teas/Coffees/Parties for brides and new moms are also different in each area. Where we lived in TN the bride did not unwrap her gifts….they were either opened by the hostesses (for people like me who did not know to bring it unwrapped) or people brought them unwrapped or the store delivered them and placed them on tables. I will never forget the first time I went to a bridal "event" after spending a lot of time and effort wrapping and creating a beautiful package....that the bride never saw!! But I quickly learned that it was quite freeing to not have to wrap gifts!!

I love how each area has their own set of “rules” and it really is fun learning about the different “cultures”....but how can we find just the right people who will to introduce us to these “rules” and help us get accustomed to our new place? And how important to treasure and embrace their ways of doing things!!