Rain!! Our prayers are being answered! We can never have too much rain. I was visiting with a dear friend today at my “part-time workplace.” Rain was pouring. We started to talk about our youth and the fun time “dancing in the rain.” We forget that time in our life, don’t we? As we get older, life brings issues that replace the sweet memories of our youth. I challenge you to take a quick trip back. I suggested to my friend as we shared our experiences as children, that she write that all down for her grandchildren. I am going to do that too.
My friend and I found we have so much in common when it comes to our youth. We were not wealthy. Not with money anyway. Our wealth came packaged differently. Our family members were our wealth. They worked hard, very hard…every day, but Sunday. No stores were open. No shopping. If you were going to need things for Sunday dinner, you surely better have gotten it on Saturday. Sunday dinner was fried chicken or pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, okra, black-eyed peas, homemade bread and somewhere hidden in that kitchen was a Coconut Cake, Peach Cobbler or Cherry and Apple Pies. So blessed with laughter and good things at grandmother’s on Sunday.
We had one good pair of shoes for school and Sunday. The rest of the time we were barefoot. No flip-flops back then. Barefoot. The rains would come and run along the curb. We collected tadpoles. Running and splashing in the water. No antibacterial hand sanitizers or soap! If we got a cut, it was washed until tears came and then one of two things happened. Grab hold of something. Both remedies came in a little bottle with a stopper and a thin glass bead wand. They were both a reddish-orange color. They were Methialate and Mercurechrome. Mercurechrome was scary looking but caused no pain. Methialate??? Nothing hurt worse. If you weren’t already crying with your skinned knees, elbows, chin…you would soon find your voice. The one applying it and everyone close by, joined in blowing until the fire went out. We never had staph infections, colds, allergies, asthma…we played all day, barefooted, picking up tadpoles with our bare hands, scratches, scrapes and then all the neighbors blowing germs over our wound, to calm the fire. We made and occasionally might even, on a dare, eat “mud pies” made of awesome Texas dirt and water. Never sick!
We played outside, all day long, all over the neighborhood. Never afraid for one moment. It was a good time. A safe time.
The world was not moving at a fast pace. Some women worked but there were many who did not work outside the home. We went to school, played in the evenings, played all day on Saturdays and then came the Sabbath. It was church day. My grandmother would say it was the day set aside to thank God for all the blessings that we had received through the week. She played the piano, the organ and was the choir director at her church. I have beautiful memories of watching her work her magic on Sunday morning. No children’s church. We were seated in the pews with the grownups. Church bulletins and a pencil helped when we got restless. Oh! To sit in that pew one more time and watch my grandmother play beautiful music and my mom singing with the choir.
We were blessed. We had good lives without a lot of money and no television. We played with our friends and created our play out of nothing but our imagination.
~Thought For Today~
Sometimes progress isn’t a good thing. It has in many respects taken our minds off of the creator of the world and placed them on me, myself, and I. It has foolishly led us to believe that we can do all things…ourself…forgetting, it is through Christ that our salvation comes. It is through Christ our strength comes. Knowing Christ is worth more than anything a fortune can buy.
And His Father? Our God? Well, it is He that kept us out of harms way as we ran barefoot through the neighborhood. It was God, who brought the rain that set a cycle in motion…running in the rain, catching those tadpoles and watching in wonder as they evolved into frogs.
~Scripture For Today~
Psalms 71:5
5 For You are my hope; O Lord God, You are my confidence from my youth. (NASB)
Jeremiah 3:4
4 “Have you not just now called to Me, ‘My Father, You are the friend of my youth? (NASB)
Ecclesiastes 12:1
12 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them” (NASB)
~Prayer For Today~
Hello Father! Thank You for the blessing of rain. For our youthful memories. For the beauty and wonder of Your creation. For keeping us safe and bringing us thus far. Forgive us of our sins. Amen.
©2015 Kathy Ledbetter. All Rights Reserved.