“Whoever travels through life with integrity respects the Eternal, but whoever turns from it hates Him.”
Proverbs 14:2
One thing I loved growing up on the ranch, was an endless supply of cousins to play with. Stealers Wheel sang a song that said “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right….here I am stuck in the middle with you…” Plug in the word “cousins” and there I was. It was indeed glorious! I will be the first to admit that my cousin John always got me into trouble with his crazy ideas! I was just the innocent bystander! Hmmmm… so maybe that isn’t the complete truth, but it sure worked to my advantage at times. After all, he was a year older and should have known better!
Tying our Uncle Bud’s hay bales all together with twine probably wasn’t a good idea. The haystack was 15 feet tall! Our 6-year-old minds didn’t comprehend the danger we put him in. We thought we were unjustly punished by him for something we did, and we needed to retaliate!
We were constantly sneaking into Grandma’s kitchen coming away with the prized possession! Bottled Coca Cola! In our haste not to get caught we would forget the bottle opener and had to sneak back into the house to steal that as well. Years later my beloved Grandma Red would laugh as she recounted the story at how she was peeking around the corner the whole time, knowing all along what we were doing!
We also decided to “color” my Grandma’s house… I talked to my Aunt Shirley (John’s mom) because I thought for sure we were being naughty, but she thought we were just bored and well, kids will be kids! Youth (we were 4 and 5 years old!) does have its indiscretions. It’s all a learning process but eventually we grow up.
Unfortunately, whenever I looked at Uncle Bud’s haystack or drank the Coca Cola I had a sick feeling in my stomach that what we did was wrong. The retaliation wasn’t as sweet as I had hoped, and the soda pop tasted a little flat. Waiting to get caught and punished was almost worse than just getting caught! I think my Grandma knew that and it was a life lesson that was better passed on without harsh words or the spanking spoon! She did however, make us wash off our masterpiece artwork on her house…That’s John and I in the picture.
Do you ever hear that still, small voice
that says “STOP” when you are about to do something that is without integrity?
PRAISE GOD!! He is only trying to protect you if you will just listen! Let’s
begin now to be men and women of integrity but most importantly, a child of God
with integrity!
For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men. 2 Corinthians 8:21
No comments:
Post a Comment