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A son remembers having everything he needed growing up, and a mothers love

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Wayne is a good friend and Shipmate, he wrote this beautiful post on his facebook page and I was struck by how much it mirrored my on childhood. My guess is there are many more of us who had “rich” childhoods too.

“It’s amazing how the mind works. I’m in complete and total awe of the masterful design and craftsmanship of it. That is me putting it lightly.

Allow me to elucidate or expound on that for a moment. A simple formation of tissue overrun with neurons and receptors consolidates every single thought, feeling and gesture made by your entire body. Your thoughts are even recorded for future reference.

In this vastly dynamic contraption we can find our ourselves at any given moment.

While you ponder that allow me to share something that my brain twisted around so that I was actually ecstatic about.

I was thinking back to my childhood, I was almost always happy, my mom always made sure we had everything we needed, and often a little something extra if you looked close enough.

However, upon a more clinical review of my past, I found some fallacies that I can only contribute to the complexities of the human brain.

For instance, I knew we weren’t rich but I never thought I was poor. In retrospect, poor people got hand me downs and used items of clothing. Not to mention sporting goods or board games and outside toys.

I got all of these things. I never felt I was poor though. We never wanted for anything we needed. Nell made sure that all the basic needs were covered for us and didn’t care about the price she paid in working two and three jobs. Anything for her children.

I remember her crying when we got food stamps. It only happened once and she was so ashamed that she took yet another job. I was with her when this occurred and didn’t understand.

If you look at today’s society you’d wonder how so many get food stamps and are proud of it. But, times aren’t the same.

I never felt beneath anyone or less than anyone. A trait that Nell taught all her kids. We were taught to be respectful and honest. God fearing and joyful. The list could go on and on. She taught us to never think we were better than anyone and we were all to happy to oblige.

But, let’s get back to the mind. I think back now and know that monetarily we were poor. I had hand me downs and used toys. But more than anything else I had a love for God that had been put in my heart by my mother. She made sure that we all did and took us to church every time the doors were open.

I’m telling you this, so that should the day ever come that you think back and wonder how poor you think you were that the only thing worth remembering is a mother’s love.

I pray that you all had the love and support that Nell gave the four of us. I hope you never feel less than someone else and know that if I could do it, so can you.

Love always and God bless.”

Prayer

Lord in Your Mercy, hear our Prayers for Inez Overton

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Brother Mark published this prayer for the family of Inez Overton on our facebook page on the 26th.

Inez Overton

Dear God, You are the creator of all that is, was, and ever will be. Each of us is a product of Your creativity and Your imagination. Each day I am in awe of all that You have done. I come to You today to give thanks for the lives of Inez Overton, who came to the loving arms of Jesus Christ only yesterday, to her husband to whom she was married for 70 years and is now grieving her loss, and to her son Clyde and his wife, Cindy, all of whom are now grieving over the loss of Inez.

Though we all know and understand that Inez is now with You, it is hard to fathom the loss we feel when a loved one leaves this world for Yours. May the memories of Inez bring comfort to each family member and friend, may thinking of the good times shared and the bad times overcome, bring joy to each of them.

I pray that Inez is now free of the infirmities of old age, that the joy of being with You and Your Precious Son, Jesus Christ bring a continuing smile to Inez, and that we all know that Your love will one day be shared with each of us. Please bless Inez and help the family through their grief. I pray these things in the name of Your precious Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Brother Mark

Brother Mark’s thoughts on Thanksgiving

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This post comes to us from Brother Mark

On Thursday of this week we will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day here in the United States. For the first time in my life I find myself wondering for what we should be thankful. I find this to be a strange question . . . here in the United States is there anything for which to be thankful?

We appear to be living in a time when our leaders have forgotten how to lead. We are living in a time when our media daily stirs the pot called trouble rather than reporting the news of the day. We are divided, not only physically by this disease that has quietly conquered our nation, but by those who are supposed to guide us into the future. We now talk about “classes” in America. Each day I hear about the (1) wealthy elites, (2) the political class, (3) the BLM and antifa agitators, (4) the gun totin’, Bible thumpin’ rednecks, (5) the tens of millions of illegal immigrants, (6) the socialists, (7) those who want to protect who and what we are, and (8) those who want to tear down our nation and build a new and perfect one in its place.

Daily I read that approximately 75,000,000 people voted for each candidate in the election held a couple of weeks ago. Supposedly, we do not know who won that election. My record however, is intact. I have never voted for a presidential candidate who won. I would also note that my life has never come to an end because of a presidential election.

Each day I look to God for answers and can honestly say that He provides few. I am comforted by that. In many respects, the choices I make in life are mine. Though God is the rock upon which I stand, He still allows me to make my own choices. God is also the main thing in my life for which I am thankful. Belief in God was one of the founding principles of this country. The primacy of God in our society is the basis for that society. God gave us the Ten Commandments and those commandments are the basis for our laws. Our Founding Fathers, no matter how imperfect we may now find them, based this country upon freedom, opportunity, and the recognition that at the root of all that is, individual responsibility determines who and what we are. We are the prime movers in our own lives. The responsibility of government was to foster individual responsibility.

Individual responsibility may be the most important thing we have forgotten. God (government) does not make us go to church. It is our responsibility to choose to do that if we so desire. God (government) does not choose to motivate us to do better. It is our responsibility to work hard if we desire to have better lives. God (government) does not make us care for our fellow citizens. It is our responsibility to look around us and do what we need to do. God (government) does not elect the sorry excuse for leaders we place in charge of our country. We do that on our own.

God has given us, all of us in this country, the wonderful gift of freedom, the gift of self-determination, the gift to become what we make of ourselves. That we choose to throw that gift away is our choice . . . choice that is God’s gift to us. For all of the trouble self-determination causes, that is the one thing for which I am thankful.

I thank God for the opportunity to celebrate another Thanksgiving Day here in America. May God continue to bless her forever.