Livestock Auction

I was born in West Virginia and when I was five years old, we moved to Maryland.  From then on, each summer, my younger brother and I would spend a month back in West Virginia staying with Papaw and Granny Epperly, my mother’s parents.  One summer evening when I was ten years old, Papaw took me to a livestock auction.  They had a small ring with grandstand seating on three sides.  The animals would be herded in from a gate on the left and leave through a gate on the right. The auctioneer and staff were opposite the crowd on a raised platform.  As we went in, we registered and got a numbered card.  Cows and bulls were sold individually and cows with calves went together.  Sheep, hogs, and goats were sold in groups of five or ten.  I asked papaw if I could bid on a horse.  He said, “Of course!  You can bid up to ten dollars.  I’ll loan you the money until you can work and pay for it.”  Then he chuckled to himself.  I wasn’t sure why.  Horses went for three or four hundred, some as much as a thousand, depending on their conformation.  When the auctioneer would start the bidding, I would raise our card and say loudly, “Ten dollars.”  Everyone would smile at my bid … just before the next person would say a hundred.  As the night went on, papaw’s joke got serious for him.  He was afraid that the crowd of men would feel sorry for me, and I would get an old nag of a horse for ten dollars.  Then he would have to feed and stable it.  That night, I didn’t get a horse, but I did get a reputation.  Solomon said in Proverbs 20:11, “Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.”  Hey, you have made a reputation for yourself too.  Why not work on it today and try to improve it?

Don't Fret the Mess

Proverbs 14:4, “Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.” The modern translation of this verse is, “A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind.”  Yes, when I am doing work, my desk gets messy.  So, about once a month, I go through my “piling system” and reduce the attack to a workable level.  I have been working on the details of my aunt’s estate.  And I have so many papers and files and that I have spread the paperwork out on my bed.  I am so afraid of losing a detail that I have just decided to sleep in the spare bedroom for a while.  Solomon said it right, if you want a clean barn, don’t have any oxen in it making manure.  But if you want your crops plowed and harvested, you need oxen.  Just learn to put up with the mess.  If you are going to have children and raise them right, you will have a messy house.  Harmon Killebrew told about the time he was playing baseball in the front yard with his father and his brother. His mom came out to tell them that it was time for dinner and fussed at them for tearing up the grass. “We’re not raising grass,” his father replied, “we’re raising boys.”  And that’s just another translation of our verse.  Hey, clutter happens.  Just clean it up once a month.

Free Parking

I drove downtown last week to see a lawyer and had to park in a nearby parking garage.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the ticket dispenser was not working, so I got to park for free!  That saved me three dollars (which was chump-change compared what I had to pay for the lawyer’s fifteen minutes).  Hey, have you ever been pleasantly surprised?  Feels good, doesn’t it?  When I think back to the bargain that I got when I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, I am thrilled beyond measure!  Oh, I knew I was making the right decision when I did, but as the years rolled on, the goodness of the dear Lord just kept unfolding.  What a bargain I had made without realizing it!  Paul said in Romans 11:33, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”  We can never exhaust the depths of God’s ways and God’s love!  It’s like free parking … forever!