Gò0dNews for Kids
The Fort
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by Mandi Bagwell
emories and rebuilding and learning from
So one of my nephews who had the best—or worst—
childhood memories are amazing. As a child—
temper, or just wanted it perfect, would have enough of
well, maybe like 10 years or so—my Mom worked
our architecture design, and before our parents got home,
hard, as did my Dad, and my sister watched me and my
he would get on his bike and ride as fast as he could and
three nephews at that time. We had the best of times and the
knock down that house we spent over half the day building.
disaster of times, too, but each one taught us many lessons.
The other three of us would be so upset we would feel like
The summer I remember so well was the summer my Dad had scrap wood out by our barn just lying around, and since my nephews and I all were together during the days
giving up. So we would climb to the top of the barn and look down at the disaster. The best part was, the next day, we all forgave and rebuilt that fort/tiny house, and sometimes we had four or five bedrooms. Yes, sometimes it still got knocked down— again. But we always rebuilt it. Those were the best summers. I guess what the forts and rebuilding mean the most to me now is, life is too short to be mad. And each day is a new day to rebuild and make things better. I cherish those memories—even those where we may
while our parents worked, we made really good use of our
have fussed, argued, or didn’t agree on the design of our
time: such good use of time that we would build basically
“rebuilt homes.”
tiny houses out of the scrap wood. Sometimes we would have two or three rooms and a living room, there was so much wood. We would spend hours making the perfect
Each day is a new opportunity; that is the best part of what God allows us: a new start to rebuild. Psalm 30:5: “For his anger is but for a moment and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but
was after the hours of building this fort/house, we usually
joy comes with the morning.”
ended up in some kind of a fuss or disagreement.
8 // March 2020
About The Author
4-foot-tall home so we could play in it. The only problem
Mandi Bagwell is a mom, daughter, sister, and friend.
