Do You Have a Story?

 Of course you do. Your life has not been ordinary—it’s unique. You’re not skilled with a computer and handwriting it is too slow? Get a cheap recorder and tell your story to someone you love and maybe someone you haven’t yet met; someone not yet born into your family.

Your memories were preserved to guide anyone watching you survive what life has thrown at you, to hopefully avoid the same pitfalls you made it through, however painful those days were for you. After all, why not let someone you care about benefit from the trail you blazed? 

I learned so-o-o much about myself and my Lord, my Teacher who taught me great lessons long before I was mature enough to understand the wealth waiting in my memory’s Savings Bank for me to become wise enough to withdraw wisdom for today and tomorrow. Seems like I just gradually became aware I wasn’t just wandering thru my days, I began to realize I was being pointed down a particular path. 

I began collecting family stories because I was amazed at the horrific impact of a broken home and faithless father, poured out to shape, each in somewhat different ways, the five surviving children: my mother and four siblings (twins had previously died at ages 2 and 4). The stories grew to become a book, written with love for family long gone, to share with beloved family here now and those yet to come. 

As I wrote my own portion of this saga, I could clearly see things I had been learning, though unaware at the time. Looking ahead to be sure your path leads where you want to go is important, but looking back to take stock of what experience has taught you how you became who you are as you move toward your ultimate goal. So much insight, so much wealth I had been withdrawing bit by bit from that savings bank! 

I’m not yet who I want to be, but I have traveled for over 8 decades now, so there has certainly been much progress, despite the occasional stumble. The only reason I am still here for others to take care of must be for me to share whatever wisdom has accrued during those years. The answer I was given? My blog. Yes! Despite numb fingers and failing eyesight I cannot ignore the call. Parables, Proverbs and Pearls shares many stories, the value of which I only learned when I looked back and studied them.  I pray they will bless any reader who reads and/or shares them.

 

 

Good News

  

At 8 years of age, I was just becoming aware of exciting changes in my family’s daily life: we rented a nice house in a good neighborhood, I loved my new school, Daddy had the same job for several years,  he was getting his pilot’s license and there was a nice beef roast ever Sunday. I remembered days when none of those things were true, but mostly I remember Mama and Grandmother talking about how bad things had been during the depression—no jobs, no money, no hope.

The only uneasy note was that my uncle J.C. had joined the army right after his 18^th birthday and was sent straight to the Philippines.  His oldest brother joined too, but he lived far off – in Dallas. But life without J. C.—I couldn’t cope with the thought.  I counted forward to his return in 6 years: he would be 24 and I would be—14! I couldn’t imagine life without him for so long. Fast forward six months: December 7, 1941 and the world suddenly turned upside down. 

Normal life gone! Shortages, price-fixing, housewives taking civilian jobs, replacing all the men gone to war. Standing in line hoping to buy gasoline if you had a car, laundry soap, anything metal or paper, canned goods, meat, leather shoes--now that my family had tasted freedom to have a few luxuries like Sunday roast beef and Sunday afternoon drives? Not only did we now need cash but also ration stamps (government permission to buy limited amounts of goods now available to civilians after the armed forces received their necessary weapons and supplies). 

This was a simpler time when people pulled together for common goals: winning the war and sharing fairly what goods were available; they gathered at church to pray for their nation and for each other. There were a few opportunists who made their fortune selling goods they hoarded to the needy at exorbitant prices, but they were widely considered criminals. If shoes wore out before new ration stamps were available, you wore the old ones, hoping the shoe repair shop could keep your feet dry. Daily newspapers were eagerly devoured for hopeful war news and carefully recycled in some manner (such as creating temporary inner soles for your leaky shoes). School children were ordered to use both sides of a sheet of paper before discarding it. My life continued, but with a hole in my heart for my beloved J.C., who didn't survive.

And normal life didn’t begin to return for four years! 

As many years as I had been alive when it began. In another decade or two, we faced the polio epidemic, financial booms and busts, new diseases and cures, lesser wars with less involvement or personal sacrifice. But our nation stood strong and together we survived.

Do some of these things sound familiar today, as our world faces another crisis? 

Many lives were lost during World War II, and due to famine and disease through the ages, just as many are now victims of the current epidemic. Today’s crisis is not the only one nor the worst in history and as always, many will die but most will live.  During your lifetime, you will (unless the Lord calls His children Home) face other fires, floods, earthquakes, pandemics, just like the Bible warns us. 

Your older relatives remember how deeply that world war changed our daily lives and our future, just as covid-19 is changing yours. Most of you will survive but may face a different, less cohesive nation. The aftermath of divisive, selfish interest groups, political strife now unchecked by any moral healing—unless and until we remember to look up and seek guidance from our forgotten Creator, Healer, Teacher, Savior, Judge, who is waiting but whose longsuffering patience will soon end.

Whether or not you know God personally, you will go through these dark days—either alone and fearful, or with His companionship, guidance and support, knowing He will carry you during the worst; He will be beside you now and for eternity, beginning the moment you call Him.  He offers eternal life (beginning NOW!) if you simply ask. 

        Joshua 1:9  Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be 

        dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.