Wet Floor

 

Saturday, I was helping clean the church, and I mopped the fellowship hall.  I did it in two phases so that we could continue to walk on dry flooring.  I mopped the back ¾ of the room, turned on a fan, and let the floor dry for 30 minutes.  Marleen and Kat left, so I finished mopping the rest of the room, backing out of the door and turning off the light behind me.  But in the church vestibule, I reached into my pocket to get my car keys and my heart sank.  I looked back into the middle of the fellowship hall and saw my car keys, wallet, and hat on the table … across 20 feet of wet floor!  But I instantly saw a solution: I went around through the church auditorium. through the ladies’ Sunday school room and into the back door of the fellowship hall, where the floor was dry.  Hey in life, we often see the problems before we see the solutions.  But with the dear Lord’s wisdom, there is always a solution to every problem.  Always.  I Corinthians 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”  Look for God’s solutions to life’s problems.

Miss Myrna

 

Psalm 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”  Miss Myrna Smith was welcomed home May 14 after many years of pain and suffering.  In August 1980 at Calvary I.B.C. in Chattanooga, I heard Brother Marvin Wallen on the organ and Miss Myrna Smith on the piano play, “When They Ring Those Golden Bells for You and Me”.  And now the angels are ringing those bells for her!  What wonderful memories!  She was a soul-winner directing the Phoster Club for ladies at church.  So today, hand out a Gospel tract in her honor.  If your church doesn’t have tracts, visit us at Calvary for a supply, and honor the memory of Miss Myrna.  “Well done, faithful servant.”

https://www.heritagechattanooga.com/obituaries/Myrna-Warren-Smith?obId=48413342&fbclid=IwY2xjawR1WH9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeUoYIVBJy4_j3YRF5BcMQlHdCmqPIFCVddR3t-JPpP8VOQufPTPmhLEEOq6I_aem_1NUcNog-Nxm4Hb0Lc1xK7g

Teachers

 

Last week, I was cutting some western cedar wood to make Lincoln Logs.  The smell of cedar sawdust brought my mind back to sharpening pencils in elementary school.  Today pencils are made with some form of composite pressed and formed wood pieces, but back in the day, pencils were made with real western cedar wood.  That smell reminded me of shaking out the pencil sharpener, along with dusting the chalkboard erasers.  Pencils were reserved for math and pens were for writing.  Thank you, Miss Tigner for showing me how to add and subtract in the first grade at Old Post Elementary school in 1956, and thank you, Miss Merryman for teaching me the times tables in the third grade.  Thank you, Miss Buis for explaining long division in the fifth grade, and thank you, Miss Barrett for patiently teaching me to balance equations in the seventh grade.  Thank you, Mr. Webb for motivating me to learn geometry as a high school junior and, finally, thank you, Miss Janes for staying with me through trigonometry as a senior at Edgewood High school.  I am sure that all of the above-mentioned teachers wondered what would ever become of Gerald.  Well, he made it … sort of.  And he taught others as well.  And many of those, my students, are teaching now.  Solomon enigmatically said in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”  Solomon, you are spot on!  There have been teachers, there are teachers, and there will be teachers.  And for all of you teachers reading this post, I give to you a heartfelt, “Thank You!”  Keep up the good work!