Morning Star Fellowship - part 8

Okay, I'm continuing with my series on the history of Morning Star Fellowship.  I'm going back to the Hart family.

Shawn And His Sisters
Shawn Hart had two younger sisters: Ashley and Ruth.  He was almost 2-years-old when Ashley was born.  He was 5 1/2 - years-old when Ruth was born.  Shawn always felt responsible for his little sisters.  He always looked out for them.

Shawn was the dutiful son and the dutiful big brother.  At church he always helped out his mom and dad concerning his little sisters.  He often took them to their Sunday school classes, and then picked them up afterwards.  But Shawn didn't do that because he had too.  He did it because he wanted to.

Ashley was a perfectionist who was idealistic.  Everything had to be just so - including her room.  When the siblings were growing up the two sisters shared the same bedroom.  Ashley was the "clean one" while Ruth was the "messy one".  The girls often had arguments over the tidiness of their room.  Mom or Dad or Shawn always had to step in to referee the situation.

Ruth was a little bit on the quiet side.  She was laid back and never in a hurry.  She also had a tendency to not deal with things.  She would often let things go and not let her family know if something was troubling her.

Morning Star Fellowship started in the early mid 1960s while the siblings were growing up.  Shawn was about 13-years old, Ashley was about 11, and Ruth was about 7 1/2.  Their father, Ed Hart, became the assistant pastor.  The siblings became preacher's kids - pks.

How did Shawn, Ashley, and Ruth feel about being pks?  There were certain people in the church who expected the pastors' children to behave perfectly.  If a pk giggled in church, someone hurried off to complain to an elder or one of the pastors.  If a pk acted or looked grouchy at church someone complained.  If a pk got into an argument with a friend after Sunday school someone complained.

Shawn grew to feel that he couldn't let anyone down.  If he made a mistake he usually didn't say anything to anyone because he didn't want to disappoint anyone.  After a while he felt like he was putting up a facade, and he didn't like that.

Ashley wanted to be perfect so that everyone would be happy with her.  She was always very careful to be perfect in everything that she said and did.  In fact, she was the one who was a straight A student all through school.

Ruth felt like she never measured up.  It seemed like no matter what she did at church there was always someone who found something wrong with it.  She eventually gave up trying to please everyone.  Yet deep down inside she still wanted someone to be happy with her.

Many times their father told them, "You are being held to a higher standard.  You need to protect your Christian witness."

Blogger Note - 6-25-13

I have taken a little hiatus from my blog.  Now I'm back.

I would like to eventually post my stories on here.  But I don't feel ready to do that just yet.  I would like to get more stories written first.

For now I want to continue doing background histories.  I've been having fun with that.  I hope you enjoy reading the histories.

Sometime this week I'll continue with my series on the history of Morning Star Fellowship.  :)