{"id":8369,"date":"2019-01-24T07:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=8369"},"modified":"2019-01-20T13:03:54","modified_gmt":"2019-01-20T19:03:54","slug":"fruit-of-the-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2019\/01\/24\/fruit-of-the-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Fruit Of The Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

SHS Class of \u201983, full of quality kids, my sister had hopes of giving the commencement speech.\u00a0 <\/span>She came hope dejected, told our father that they\u2019d \u201conly\u201d given her the benediction\u2026<\/p>\n

Hear her father respond \u2013<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u2013 \u201cThey\u2019ve chosen you to speak to God on behalf of all the student body.\u00a0 <\/span>What could be bigger than that?\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s our ole man, in the 1980\u2019s.\u00a0 <\/span>This is not a man on the mountain top, talking down; this is a man in the valley, speaking up.<\/p>\n

The 1980\u2019s Were Hard Years<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 1970\u2019s things were looking up for the family.\u00a0 <\/span>We\u2019d moved from country to town.\u00a0 <\/span>The house was bigger.\u00a0 <\/span>Mom had a new car and a nice white couch for the formal living room, where only company sat.<\/p>\n

The kids growing, Mom restless, she\u2019d taken up painting, and started hosting lessons in the garage.\u00a0 <\/span>Dad, probably throwing her a bone, put up a little money, and she opened an art and frame shop in a strip center.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He was not speaking from victory, but from valley.\u00a0It was bread upon the waters. His scraggly hand writing,\u00a0plain paper, scotch tape, nothing fancy, out of sight\u00a0on the back, to be once seen and then forgotten\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Things were about to change.<\/p>\n

Dad always had a dual career, farming to put bread on the table, preaching to feed the soul.\u00a0 <\/span>Russia was the biggest buyer of American soybeans, and when they invaded Afghanistan in 1979 President Carter embargoed U.S. grain products.\u00a0 <\/span>Overnight, prices plummeted. \u00a0 <\/span>Beans in the dryer, beans in the field, he was helpless.<\/p>\n

Dad went under.<\/p>\n

Mom\u2019s \u201cplay\u201d business was now the family income, and it was\u2026modest.\u00a0 <\/span>In the 1980\u2019s the prime interest rate pushed 20%!\u00a0 <\/span>Inflation was high, oil fell to $10 a barrel.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019d come home from Dallas and everybody was driving these ten year old cars, buying tires one at a time.\u00a0 <\/span>There was a bumper sticker around here, \u201cLast one out of Lake Charles turn out the lights.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not a time to be selling art. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026and he\u2019d retired from pastoring\u2026<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I was out of college and full of go-go.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019d come home, and Dad looked heavy shouldered, like a bread winner with neither bread nor win.\u00a0 <\/span>He was in his 50\u2019s, too late to start over, too early to quit, still had his name, but seems like he\u2019d lost some of his identity.\u00a0 <\/span>But\u2026<\/p>\n

But Dad had a certain something.\u00a0 <\/span>You could hurt him, life could hurt him, and he\u2019d go under, but so barely under, and for so short a time.\u00a0 <\/span>For someone who didn\u2019t fish, he was quite the cork.<\/p>\n

One of his secret weapons was his saturating faith.\u00a0 <\/span>Good times, bad times, awful times, didn\u2019t matter, God was on the job, He knew your needs, He was faithful, Somehow it\u2019d all work out, Just keep doing the right things\u2026<\/p>\n

Dad thrived on giving.\u00a0 <\/span>With no church congregation to minister to, he\u2019d do odd things, like go to Market Basket – not for groceries – but just ramble around, hope to bump into someone, do a good deed, grab a can from a high shelf for an old lady, let someone cut in line, just to make them feel special, and if he knew you, he was all yours, you had all his attention, to complain about aches \u2018n pains, or worries about the choices the kids were making, and he\u2019d give you, with pleasure, his kind eyes, his gentility, his uncommon sincerity.\u00a0 <\/span>And when he said \u201cI\u2019ll pray for you,\u201d you could take that to the bank.\u00a0 <\/span>Sometimes, he\u2019d pray right there, just put his arm around your shoulder, green beans to the left and pork \u2018n beans to the right, go straight to \u201cOur Father,\u201d and let Him know\u2026 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Every Straw A Good Deed<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was young I compared my father with Billy Graham.\u00a0 <\/span>Graham was a Big Deal, on TV, full stadiums, prayed with presidents\u2026and here my father was, in these little country churches,\u00a0 <\/span>30, 40, 50 attendance on Sunday morning, same old faces, same old songs, and I wondered if what he did mattered.<\/p>\n

When my father was dying in 2014 it was time to measure again.\u00a0 <\/span>I was older now, and understood that God uses us, and whether for Big or Little, we don\u2019t really ever know, because sometimes Big is for just a moment, and gone, while Little multiplies by lasting\u2026<\/p>\n

That old needle in the haystack thing, it came to mind for Dad.\u00a0 <\/span>Forget the needle \u2013 it\u2019s the haystack.\u00a0 <\/span>My father had built a haystack, built by adding the one by one\u2019s of good deeds, right words, of the moment, in the moment, for the moment. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One by one by one by one by one\u2026the humble, manual labor of a clean hearted person, trying to be helpful\u2026<\/p>\n

Words Written, Seed Sown \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2018 a lady found her old diploma, framed by my father during those bad years.\u00a0 <\/span>Not one to miss a chance, on the back he had written, \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLive by these rules and you will do well.<\/p>\n

\u201cObey God.<\/p>\n

\u201cRespect everybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cApply your talents.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was not speaking from victory, but from valley.\u00a0 <\/span>It was bread upon the waters.\u00a0 <\/span>His scraggly hand writing, plain paper, scotch tape, nothing fancy, out of sight on the back, to be once seen and then forgotten\u2026<\/p>\n

All Things Work Together For Good…\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Every few years I\u2019d ask him about the 1980\u2019s, \u201cWere you ever mad at God?\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His answer never changed, \u201cOh no!\u00a0 <\/span>God is always right.\u201d<\/p>\n

If he\u2019d have died in the 1970\u2019s his obituary might read, \u201cEntrepreneur, investor, pilot, traveler, preacher\u2026\u201d but his 1980\u2019s revealed the best of who he really was, shedding him of his excess, image, and pride, earned him what I said at his funeral, \u201cThe only thing Dad was really good at\u2026was being a Christian,\u201d which was full circle to something he\u2019d told me in the 1980\u2019s, me all full of ambition for stuff and status, and here he speaks, from the deep, rich, valley, \u201cI think that when a person dies, if people\u2019s first thought of them is that they were Christians\u2026I\u2019d say that was a pretty successful life\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This edition of Uncle P\u2019s Bedtime Stories is brought to you by Eighty-one, where we trust the healed over of old scars. \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

A best-of compilation of Uncle P\u2019s Bedtime Stories is available in a book version at Eighty-one, 3507 Ryan St, Lake Charles. \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SHS Class of \u201983, full of quality kids, my sister had hopes of giving the commencement speech.\u00a0 She came hope dejected, told our father that they\u2019d \u201conly\u201d given her the benediction\u2026 Hear her father respond \u2013 \u00a0\u2013 \u201cThey\u2019ve chosen you to speak to God on behalf of all the student body.\u00a0 What could be bigger [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[59,894],"yoast_head":"\nFruit Of The Valley - BestOfSwla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2019\/01\/24\/fruit-of-the-valley\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fruit Of The Valley - 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