Preacher Stick

 

Thursday, I installed shoe molding in a house for a friend who had just refinished the old hardwood floors.  I like the dark stain that he used on the old wood.  With many inside corners to measure, I first made me a “preacher” stick.  “What is a preacher stick?” you might ask.  Thank you for asking.  Take a piece of the shoe molding and cut it off at exactly ten inches.  Next, check the accuracy of the floating nose of your tape measure.  Start checking the preacher stick at the one inch mark.  The end should be at exactly eleven inches.  To use the preacher to measure an inside corner, put it in the inside corner, your tape end in the other corner, and accurately measure to the end of the preacher.  Add ten inches to the measurement and you have an accurate measurement of the inside corner.  Never worry, because the preacher always tells the truth (hence the name, “preacher stick”).  Would to God that preachers today always told the truth!  Too many preachers are like the shyster televangelists looking for donations from gullible widows.  Paul admonished his young protégé, Timothy, in II Timothy 4:2, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”  Hey, preach for God; not donations.  The money may come … or the money may not come, but always preach the Word!