Trust?

"If you trust God, He will get you out of all your troubles."

"If you live for God, He will make everything in your life right." 

"Trust God and your troubles will be over." 

"If you trust God, He will do what you ask." 

We have heard these statements and many others like them through the years.  But do they mislead ones who don't know God, or for that matter, even some who do know Him?

How often do new Christians come to God and because of what we have told them, they think they won't have heartache, loss and trouble?

 How many times have the new Christians walked away from God because their new life wasn't trouble-free like we made them think it would be?

  How often do we think, that because we believe, like the three Hebrew children did, that "God is able to deliver us out of the fiery furnace," that alone is trust? 

Does trust not go farther than knowing He can?

When we were children we believed our Dad was Superman and that he could do anything. And though our earthly Dad's powers were limited we trusted him to either get us out of bad situations or help us through them,  and he helped us through many. Our Heavenly Father's powers are not limited by fleshly limitations, He really can do anything. But does knowing that mean that I trust Him?

If you recall the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they told the king, "Our God is able to deliver us from the furnace. But if He doesn't, we will trust Him anyway." They had faith that God could, and trusted that if He didn't keep them from the furnace He would have still delivered them. Their faith became trust when knowing that He could, yet not knowing that He would, it remained steadfast. 

When we were children we dreamed of the day we would grow up and be big and strong  like our Dad. That couldn't be achieved by him giving us candy every time we asked for it. Nor could we grow into strong adults by being allowed to skip the broccoli or other vegetables that didn't taste good to a child. We had to eat the yucky tasting ones as well as the yummy ones to grow up healthy. And our spiritual life is much the same. 

The  main goal in our spiritual life is to grow up big and strong like Jesus. But we often want to achieve that by eating candy, Krispy Kreme and ice cream and skipping our vegetables in a spiritual sense..... 

As a child when made to eat vegetables I didn't like,  I would gag, and pretend to eat them by putting them in my mouth then spitting them in the toilet.   Or some of my siblings spread the vegetables over a wider area of their plate until Dad agreed they could just eat half, then they raked them into a smaller area. If we continually avoid the healthy food that makes us stronger  our growth will be stunted. The same is true in our spiritual life.

God knows when the bad things will help me grow stronger, and at times may save me through them instead of from them. It is my greatest desire to grow to be like Him, even when His answers to my prayers are achieved through methods other than the ones I wish for. I pray for His grace and strength to help me trust Him through them all.... 

Lets Scare Them

We were staying in Ron and Juanetta's vacation home on Kentucky Lake for a few days.  There was an continual fun and good food as we talked, pranked, played games and ate. One night, after a great and tiring day we had all retired when some of us came up with a mischievous idea. 

Deb, Angela and I had sneaked quietly through the long walk-through closet between two bedrooms. We stood inside, waiting for the right moment to jump out and scare Juanetta, Sherlyn and Rhonda. 

We three girls stood, quietly chuckling, while listening to our sisters talk and giggle. But just as we decided to make our surprise entry, the other girls got quiet. 

We stood with our ears pressed to the door, listening impatiently for the conversation to continue, when the three of them burst through the closet door.  All six of us screamed in surprise and burst into laughter at our shocking encounter. 

The three girls, unknowing that we were coming to scare them, decided they would sneak through the closet to scare us. We were all surprised.... 

License to Kill

The lights had dimmed and the previews had begun as Paul and I walked into the theater to watch the newly released James Bond movie, "License to Kill." 

We paused for a moment and waited as we entered.  Then a flicker of light illuminated the theater and we saw two empty seats  near the front. Quietly and cautiously I led the way while carrying a bucket of popcorn and Paul followed with our large Dr. Pepper. 

One second we could see the seats and the next, the room was in total darkness. But confident we were at the right row, we stepped from the aisle and sat down. Only the seat I sat in was not empty.  I screamed and tossed the bucket of popcorn as I jumped up and knocked the Dr. Pepper from Paul's hands. 

Everyone around us enjoyed our mistake with the possible exception of the people that were covered in soda. 

Barn-Jumpers

Barn-Jumping:

We were visiting with some friends, the Gene England family,  at Leachville. Several of us kids were exploring the barn when we were challenged by Darrell to jump.  Rhonda, Deb, Linda and I accepted the challenge.  

When Darrell dared us girls to jump he didn't warn us about not bringing our knees into our chin as we landed, but we learned it quickly as we rolled around on the ground in pain. That jars your teeth all the way into your brain.... Of course Rhonda waited until last to jump, and changed her mind after seeing our pain. 

We later moved to a large two-story house in the country near Leachville that had several out buildings. There was a chicken coop, a smoke house and a large barn. Since Deb and I were experienced barn-jumpers I suppose  we felt that we had to teach this skill to Rhonda and to Sherlyn, who was only five. 

On the ground in front of the barn was a large stack of lumber approximately six or eight feet wide. So Deb and I were good sisters and warned Sherlyn and Rhonda to jump wide so they wouldn't get hurt. We were daring, but we tried to keep the fun safe, if we thought of it.  

Deb and I were so intent on keeping Rhonda and Sherlyn from landing in the lumber pile beneath the barn loft, that we forgot to warn them about keeping their knees from hitting their chin. That is one of the incidents that Sherlyn blames her memory problems on today. 

Jump Board

Jumping Board:

A fun thing that Dad taught us to do as kids was jumping board. You take a twelve foot 2x10 board and lay it across an 18"-24"  block.(not certain of height) One person stands on one end which causes the other end to raise up and the other person jumps flatfooted onto it. The impact of a person jumping on one end of the board catapults the other into the air. Then as that one lands the other person is catapulted into the air. With good balance it is enormously fun. .

Dad and I were quite good at jumping board. He moved the board closer to one end to adjust for the difference in our weight and when his feet hit the board I felt like I was soaring high. 

Some friends, who were visiting us from California wanted to see how to jump board. So Dad and I were giving them an exhibition. For several minutes everything went smoothly and I felt the usual invigoration as my feet left the board and I sailed above their heads. Then, too quickly to act, my feet slipped at the same time Dad's feet hit the board and my balance was lost. When my feet left the board that time I was flipping through the air and landed sprawled nearby. 

Everyone who was watching the jump board exhibition said my head hit the ground first, with my body folded over it, and they were certain that my neck was broken. Dad picked me up and with everyone gathered around they rushed into the house to lay me on the bed, praying as they went. Thankfully I was fine after the incident but Dad would never jump board with us again. He thought he had killed me when I fell. 

After the fall I was knocked senseless but as he carried me into the house I heard Dad's anguished cry, "Oh God! I've killed my baby!" 

Tommy Walkers

Stilts from Cardboard:

When we visited with the Butler side of our family we had watched Dad and our uncles walk on "Tommy Walkers". (Tommy Walkers were stilts made from two long boards about two inches wide By two inches thick. You would  cut a block of wood and nail it to each of the long boards about eight inches to a foot from the ground, depending on your capabilities, then nail a small loop of leather to support your feet and a loop of leather to go around each wrist.)

We older girls had walked on Tommy Walkers before, but we created a new style of stilts that proved to be more fun and took more skill. (Though we never accomplished much skill.)

Dad was laying new linoleum in our house and the large cardboard tubes that it came in, were tossed outside to be burned later. We were quick to grab them and our imaginations went to work to figure out the best use for them. 

After several discarded ideas we hit on one that we all liked. One of us girls sneaked a knife outside and we cut the tube into sections, probably three feet long each. Then with two sections of the tube laying side-by-side on the ground, one of us held them still, while the others helped one girl to slide her legs into the tubes. 

The feet of the girl, whose legs were inside the tubes were probably a foot or more from touching the ground and she could not bend her legs. With one girl on each side we helped her to her feet and propelled her forward until she was ready to walk on her own. Of course trying to walk in these was not as easy as the Tommy Walkers because you could not jump off if you lost your balance. 

Even when we were helping each other to stand and walk in our new stilts, it was hilarious. Picture us, as we lifted one girl to stand upright,  when her weight shifted forward, it threw us all forward. We ran forward to regain our balance while still holding her up. Then we tried again only to be  thrust backwards as we over compensated, and ran backwards.  

This forward and backward dance might continue for several minutes before we thought the one on stilts was steady enough to turn loose. Then we stood and watched for the inevitable collapse  we knew would happen so the next one could take her turn. 

You might be able to walk steadily for several feet before starting to lose your balance. Then to the enjoyment of the watchers you would start the little forward and backward dance again before collapsing to the ground amid the peals of laughter around you. 

Spring Forward?

We got to the church and were surprised to be the first to arrive.... We couldn't believe we were the only ones to remember to set their clocks. But since everyone would start arriving after a while, even if they were an hour late, we decided that we would just wait. 

After sitting for an hour we finally heard a car pull in and shortly Nina and Billy Joe came walking into the church.... We teased them because they had forgotten to change their clocks while we waited for others to arrive. 

We were well into our second hour of waiting for Brother and Sister Bourn and the other church members to arrive at church. And we were wondering why they were so late before it dawned on us, we should have "fallen back" not "sprang forward." So we had a two hour wait before church time arrived.