Granny Whitely

When I was growing up, it seemed to me that Granny Whitely had always been old.  But she was old in a good sense: she was old enough to get respect from everyone else, but young enough (at heart) to have fun with.  I remember Granny Whitely taking out her false teeth and chasing us grandkids around with a broom pretending to be an old witch.  She never had a bathing suit; she would wear old pants to go swimming in.  She called them “pear-shaped”.  At the time I didn’t know why she called them "pear-shaped", but later I realized that “pear-shaped” was a spoof on her figure.  Granny got a Social Security check each month, and she got another check from the federal government as a widow from her husband who had died on the job in the coal mines in West Virginia.  In order to get her coal miner’s pension check each month, Granny had to mail in an affidavit that she was still alive.  So, Granny would sign the paper and let one of us grandchildren countersign the paper.  We felt very responsible when we signed the government document.  No one in Washington D.C. knew that we were just ten or twelve years old.  That was my introduction to bureaucracy.  Like Granny Whitely, I want to leave a legacy of fun.  I want my five grandchildren to know that their Granddaddy Whitely loved them and that he loved God.  Solomon said in Proverbs 16:31, “The hoary (gray) head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.”  May all that see this gray head know that I love the dear Lord because He is my crown of glory!

Dairy Cows

 

When I was about fourteen years old, my dad took me to work every Saturday in Churchville, Maryland.  I worked for an old lady who had a fifty-acre estate.  I worked every Saturday while in school and forty hours a week in the summer.  She paid me twenty dollars a day.  Good money for a teenager back then.  On the way to work, we passed a dairy farm of Holstein dairy cows.  The farmer had acreage on both sides of the little country road.  The cows grazed in a large field on one side of the road and were milked on the other side of the road.  Occasionally, on the way home, we would have to wait for the cows as they crossed the road.  About milking time, the cows would gather near the gate in the field.  The farmer would open the barnyard gate, cross the road, and then open the field gate.  The cows would calmly go through the gate, walk across the road, and walk into the barnyard lot near the milking parlor.  But that’s not all.  The cows knew which of the three herds that they were in.  When the farmer opened the barn door to the milking parlor, only herd “A” cows would walk into the milking parlor and each cow knew exactly which one of the forty stalls to go to!  When they were finished being milked, they would exit another door and the next forty cows in herd “B” would come in to be milked!  Each cow knew her herd and each cow knew her stall.  Each cow knew when and where to be, and each cow knew when to come in and when to go out.  Paul said in I Corinthians 14:40, “Let all things be done decently and in order.”  If cows can be calm and orderly, why can’t we humans be calm and orderly?  I think we need to visit the farm in Churchville, Maryland, don’t you?!

Toothpaste

 

There is a fine line between frugal and stingy.  And I may have crossed that line.  My toothpaste was running low, so I bought a new tube.  But trying to save money, I kept squeezing the old toothpaste tube past when it was reasonably empty.  I kept getting just one more squeeze out of it.  This has continued now for 10 days and counting!  It seems that there is just a little left as I squeeze and squeeze.  Hey, the good Lord’s grace just seems to go on and on and on as well!  God’s grace never seems to end!  I sang, “He Giveth More Grace” last Sunday evening at Calvary.  James 4:6&7, “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” 

Life & Death

 

Friday morning, fall was in the air.  Summer’s hot breath was tempered with a cool morning breeze.  Fall was in the air at the Daily Hill Cemetery as well, so I changed the summer silk flowers for an orange and rust brown bouquet.  I miss Kathy.  But then I came back home where I was working on a cradle for my new little nephew.  I found some nice wood camouflaged as pallets.  A few passes in my planer will turn pallet wood into recycled cradle boards.  And life goes on.  One life is completed and another is just beginning.  Hey, there is 100% chance of you dying someday.  The question is, are you ready to meet your Maker?  Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

Hidden

 

Thursday, I spoke in chapel at Fairview Christian Academy in Athens, TN.  I had to vacuum out my work truck to keep my dress pants spiffy.  And as I vacuumed under the seat, I came up with a washer from a sink drain assembly.  The washer had been hiding under the truck seat since the former owner had the truck several years ago.  Unknown to me, this washer was there all the time.  Hey, like my washer, do you have any hidden problems in your life?  These “hidden problems” are actually called sins.  You may think that they are a secret known only to you, but you are sadly mistaken.  You see, God knows.  Hebrews 4:13, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”  How does it feel to think that your deepest, darkest secret is open before the Almighty God?!  So, why not take a moment to confess your sins to God?  After all, He already knows all about them.