One Little Book
What is my cultural heritage? What is it that has made me who I am today? What is it that impacted me in reference to my values, personality, family and worldview? What do I have that represents my heritage and who I have become?
For this project I have chosen a small beat up copy of a children’s Bible. On the inside cover my mother in scripted my name “Joy Allard” with the date underneath of 1970. To the average person reading this, it means nothing. But to me it now means everything. At the age of two my parents gave this Bible to me as I began my formal education in what has become the crux of my life. The Bible was the center of my home life. My father was a pastor for his entire career and now works as a hospital Chaplin. It was the Bible that was the center of his work. It was the Bible in which my parents based their parenting techniques, character development and our value system. It was the Bible in which my family, in a larger sense our church body, instructed me in lessons on life. It was the Bible that helped determine my world view and how l live within it.
This pocket size Bible is well worn with age and life. It really depicts my heritage as there were many ups and downs, rips and tears, and honestly times when this little Bible sat on a shelf collecting dust. In the end, his Bible sits on my dresser with the head of Jesus ripped off and missing from the cover, but in red crayon the words “I love Jesus” remain.
Not only are those words written on the cover of this little book, but on my heart. My heritage has determined my present state, my goals and my future. After many a struggle over the church and the place of God in my life, I chose the path of my parents. After finishing college, I was ordained into the ministry in 1990 and I received a Master of Divinity in 1994. For 20 years I worked for local churches and still volunteer today.
My cultural heritage is clearly depicted in this little...