Arrows

 

When I was ten years old, I found an arrow in the woods behind my house.  It was a green target arrow with yellow fletching.  The next Saturday, my dad made me a bow to go with my arrow.  It had a steel string, and I had to use a cotton winter glove to pull it back.  The bow was hickory and too strong for my ten-year-old arms, but I had fun with it.  Pastor Jamie’s sermon last Sunday night was about encouraging our children.  Psalm 127:3&4, “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD … As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.”  Brother Jamie said that arrows need to be balanced, sharpened, pointed in the right direction, and released at the proper time.  A good reminder on how to raise children.  But, this reminder is a little late for me, because my children are 52, 49, 47, and 43 years old!  (I hope I got the ages right, and I hope I raised them right.)  But I am writing this for you … and for my children raising their children.  Good advice from Scripture … for my children and for you!

Good to Bad

 

Sunday morning started out good.  I got up early, thanks to the fall-back-in-the-fall time change.  I had a good breakfast and got ready early.  And I got out my freshly dry-cleaned blue jacket.  I had to put a clean handkerchief into the inside pocket and breath mints in the right outside pocket (the left side is for trash).  I felt good laying my fresh jacket over the arm of the couch while I finished getting ready for church.  But when I got to Sunday school, my jacket was still on the arm of the couch!  Bummer!  My great morning was ruined!  I took my dear wife into church, and since we were fifteen minutes early, I went back home and got my jacket.  I ended up ten minutes late for Sunday school.  Hey, do you have days that go from confident to broken in just a few moments?  Days when it seems that the wheels fall off the wagon?  It’s usually good to stop, take a deep breath, and ask the dear Lord to take over.  Don’t let frustration build, because it will only get worse.  Philippians 4:6&7, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  Don’t waste a good Sunday.  Start in a good mood.  Or … get into a good mood.  Let the dear Lord’s peace replace your bad start.  I did.

Dead

 

I grew up in a family of four boys and I was the oldest.  My dear sister was born when I was sixteen years old.  In the summers, us boys lived outdoors.  We went out in the morning and didn’t come home until dark.  We were afraid to come inside because mom might have work for us to do.  So, at lunchtime, we ate a tomato out of the garden or sliced a cucumber … with the same pocketknife that we skinned squirrels with.  I loved climbing trees and would try to go from one tree to another without going back to the ground.  If I would go high enough, where the tree was thin and limber, I could swing out and cause the tree to lean over to a nearby one and transfer from one tree to another.  The old Tarzan movies might have had something to do with my tree-climbing interests.  So, one day we were enjoying our creative tree climbing when my brother, two years younger than me, attempted a risky move.  He lost his grip, fell about twenty feet, and landed squarely on his back.  Phillip didn’t move, and I thought he was dead!  I shinnied down the tree as fast as I could.  But then I heard him gasp.  He had the wind knocked out of his lungs, and he was gasping to get his breath.  He was shaken, but otherwise, just fine.  After sixty years, I still have that moment burned into my memory.  Hey, we all fear death.  That is because death is so final.  We can’t make amends or ask forgiveness of anyone after death.  The mind shuts down, the soul leaves the body, and nothing matters.  But, if we have trusted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will live again!  Oh, we still fear death, but death, for the Christian, is not final.  Death is only the door that opens into eternity.  Paul said in I Corinthians 15:55, :O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”  We mourn at funerals, but we do not mourn as those who have no hope.  Our hope is in Jesus Christ and in the coming resurrection told of in I Corinthians 15 and I Thessalonians 4.  Hey, read about it and decide for Christ.  Decide before it’s too late.