AND YOU CALL THESE LITTLE BLESSINGS?


Yesterday my family met at my niece's house to thank God for the blessings He has bestowed on  us.  Even though we have done this before,  for some reason this time seemed different to me.  I had a really good time at Susan's house but after we left, my mind continued to think of the many blessings I receive from God and so often take for granted.  I guess you could say I had my very own little Thanksgiving Day in July.  I have decided to list some of the things I'm thankful for and in so doing, I hope to come back and read this list later,  maybe add to it,  and maybe I can even have my own little Thanksgiving Day in another inappropriate month,  say like September or January.  Anyway,  here goes:

First of all,  I "really" am thankful for this day.  It is a gift of God and it is given to me to use as I wish.  I just hope I will do something with it that will please the One that gave it to me.  I am thankful for the the green grass that cover the earth.  For the way it feels under my bare feet even though I'm not a child any more.  I am thankful for the comfort it gives my body as I lay down upon it and stare at the beautiful blue sky.  We have had artist that have painted masterpieces for hundreds of years but none that have ever exactly matched the perfect blue that God gave to the sky, and for this beauty I am thankful.  I'm even thankful for the clouds that spurred my imagination when I was a child.  These strange, ever changing masses of vapors,  that even to this day give me pleasure.  I thank God for His wisdom to include these in His world.   And as I continue to look up,  I am thankful for the rainbow,  for the colors that I see but mostly for the promise from God that it stands for.......Ohhhhhhh....The Blessed Assurance.

I'm thankful for the gentle rain and the cleansing smell it produces on a spring day.  Have you ever thought about being thankful for some of the smells we enjoy everyday?  Like the smell of a board as it is pushed through the table saw or the smell of a freshly mowed lawn.   Or of the fragrance of the Gardenia bushes when they are in full bloom.  And oh yeah,,,,,not to long ago I can remember smelling the freshly turn earth as I was preparing to plant my garden.  It was a wonderful odor that brought a smile to my face.  For these,  I am thankful.

I'm thankful for my family and yes,  many time I even take them for granted.  I'm thankful for when the phone rings and the caller I.D. says it's one of my children.  I don't like to talk on the phone for long periods of time but just the knowing that it is one of "mine" makes my heart flutter.  And this may sound  silly to some of you  but I am so thankful when one of our children or grand children are over and they just naturally go to the pantry or refrigerator to get something to eat or drink without asking.  I'm thankful that they consider our home their home.   And I'm not thankful when they leave but I am so thankful for the arms I always feel around my neck and the words of  "I love you PaPa" I hear as they walk out the door.  I'm so thankful to be loved.  And I'm thankful for a loving wife that knows the meaning of "family."   A wife that I enjoy being with and doing things with.  A wife that has a giving nature.  It doesn't hurt that she's a good cook too.  I'm thankful for my Sisters and brother-in-laws and nieces and nephews -in-laws and  great nieces and great nephews.  It is so wonderful to have a loving family.  I can feel God's hand upon us.

I'm thankful for my friends.  I'm thankful when I reconnect with a friend from long ago and discover that he or she is doing well.  I'm thankful that life has treated them good.  I'm thankful for a firm handshake from a man and the gentleness of a woman.  Call me old fashion if you want to.  You see,  I'm thankful I'm old fashion in some ways.  And when a family member or a friend passes away,  I'm thankful when I hear they were a believer,  a child of God, for you see ,,,, it makes me thankful I will someday reunite with them.  Yes once again..." Blessed Assurance."

Oh I could go on and on but I need to go out and check on my new chickens, ( for which I am also thankful for) and I don't want to completely bore you with my thoughts.  But as you finish reading this,  I ask you to  "Thank God for this day"  and if you are especially thankful for something,  share it with us.  I would love to hear your thoughts.  Why you ask?   Because you see.....I'M THANKFUL FOR YOU !!!!!!

May God continue to bless us all.

THE "COOP  D' VILLE"


On the television show Pawn Stars,  the Old Man sometimes uses the phrase "Some people's children" when talking about his son and grandson.  Sometimes I use the phrase "Some people's wives" when referring to my wife Peggy.  Most times her ideas are great.  Most times her ideas even bring me enjoyment.  In fact,  most of the time, I'm glad when she shares one of her ideas with me.  But then sometimes I just shake my head and say,  ( usually under my breath of course so she can't hear me, ) "some people's wives."   One of those times happened a few months ago when Peggy said to me......"We need to build a chicken coop."  Well I knew in this case "We"  meant "You" and I also wondered what we needed with a chicken coop.  So,  to find the answer to "Why do we need a chicken coop?"...I went to the reason for this question, which was Peggy.  Her answer made perfectly good sense when she answered   "To raise chickens.".......Hmmmmm I mumbled while scratching my bald head.  Then my second question was directed to myself......"Why do we want to raise chickens?"

I immediately told my wife,,,,, "I'm not gonna slaughter  any chickens."  Now don't get me wrong.  I love chicken.  Chicken is probably my favorite meat and if cooked properly is very healthy,  but if the Good Lord had want me to slaughter my own chickens,  He wouldn't have put a Kroger up on Hwy. 5.  She then informed me she just wanted hens so we would have fresh eggs.  As she mentioned fresh eggs my mind again started working in that weird way it sometimes does.  If you read back a couple of sentences,  you will notice I mentioned the word ...HEALTHY....Hmmmm I said.

As most of you know, a little over two years ago I had my heart rebuilt.  That's right.  My heart was reconstructed with four bypasses and a new valve.  A Pig Valve if you will.   The doctor told me I hadn't taken very good care of myself.  When he finished with my surgery and was about to send me on my way,  he told me I had been given a new lease on life and unless I was ready to check out of this place,  I needed to take a little better care of myself.  I had given cigarettes up a while back and hadn't  been much for alcohol for years but now I needed to put the pipe down and eat a little more healthy.  There's that word again ...Healthy....  Well, I did put the pipe away and for awhile I ate very healthy.  I had my weight down and was feeling good.  Then it happened.  I started going back for seconds.  One donut turned into two.  One scoop of ice cream turned into the whole pint.  Darn,,,,, food sure does taste good!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then I realized I was headed down the wrong road again so I ask my doctor to set me up with a nutritionist.  This he did and once again things were going good.  Then,  as I stated earlier,  my wonderful wife has this great idea.  She wants a  "chicken coop".  Again I shook my head as I said to myself,  ( of course under my breath again )  "My Wife the Chicken Rancher".....Then,  as my mind was working' I thought,  "surely I can talk her out of this."  After all,  we hardly ever eat eggs any more.  You know..."the HEALTHY  thing.....eggs are full of  cholesterol.   Maybe she just needs a pet I thought.  I had asked her a while back if she wanted another dog.  She said she didn't as it would be hard to go anywhere over night because we would have to ask someone to feed it.   I know....we could get a herd of turtles.  They are maintenance free and I remember once my Uncle C. W. fed me some turtle and it tasted real good and I hear it's pretty healthy.  We could have a snake farm.  I once ate rattle snake and I even liked the taste of it.  Or even an ant farm.  They say ants are full of protein.  I once had an ant farm when I was a kid and it was no trouble at all until I dropped it and it broke and those little suckers went everywhere.  Mom had me walking around for a week with a can of Raid performing chemical warfare on my pets.  I became the Jeffery Dahmer of the ant world.  I think that's why I have a hard time even today killing anything.  Or how about a cat or two I thought and then I shook my head again.  NAWWWW I said to myself...I never really have liked cats but again I thought to myself...I do like Chinese.

Well,  once again Peggy got her way.  We built her a chicken coop.  Remember here, "when I say we, I really mean me".  Since we live in Douglasville we call it the  "Coop  D' Ville".   We haven't got us any chickens yet but maybe we will this week.  Peggy says we can give the eggs we don't use away.  We're just extended the acre plus farm.  All of our other animals are wild so domesticated chickens may be a pleasant thing to have around for awhile.  You see,  the birds we have eat all our cherries and blueberries.  The squirrels eat all the apples and pears.  The deer eat out of the garden and this year the rabbits have gotten fat on the beans.  I would love a good ol' pot of rabbit stew.  Well  at least the critters have let us have the tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.   I guess we will have to buy the food for the chickens,  then I will have to learn the southern pronunciation of "guano".   As a young fellow I just called it chicken _______!   You can fill in the blank !!!!!!

SOME PEOPLE'S WIVES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EULOGY AT THE FUNERAL OF AUNT FRANCIS

Isn’t God Good?

Today we come together to celebrate the life and the home going of Aunt Francis.

On Saturday morning at 1:30 AM, The Lord called to Aunt Francis and said welcome home my child. Job well done.

Some people would say, “Well I see you lost your Aunt Francis.”

I would reply “ No, Not at all.

You may lose your car keys or you may lose your billfold but we didn’t lose Aunt Frances.

You see….we all know exactly where Aunt Francis is.

Yes….God is Good.

When Marlene asked me if I would be willing to share some of my thoughts and memories about Aunt Francis at today’s service, I must admit that at first I was hesitant.

You see, I’m not a trained speaker and I’m a very emotional person.

I told Marlene I know I’ll get emotional. I know I will breakdown and cry.

So, if and when I breakdown…Don’t mistake my tears as tears of sadness….

OH NO…Don’t mistake my tears as tears of distress or despair.

The tears you see are tears of Joy…..You see…My heart overflows with joy at the memory of Aunt Francis.

Joy for the reunion that is happening in Heaven and joy for the life that has been lived on this earth over the last 100 years by a wonderful and loving lady..

If I close my physical eyes, my minds eyes open and take over what I see.

I feel a stillness.

I see a peaceful night with a sky full of more stars than we can comprehend.

I see a campfire …..and sitting on a log by that fire is Uncle C W and Uncle Brodus and Uncle Harold.

And on another log sits Uncle Ralph and Uncle Ray and Uncle Frank and my Dad Jack.

And Stuart is there poking the fire with a stick.

If you remember it was always hard to get Stuart to just sit down and be still and relax.

He had to be doing something. He hasn’t changed I guess.

And as the men sit there telling tales and sharing memories, Uncle Frank gets the attention of all the men as he points at all the women standing in a clearing in the moon light.

There’s my mom Wilma and Aunt Mary and Aunt Larue and Aunt Betty Kitchens and Aunt Betty Hogue and Mama Hogue and leading in their conversation and laughter is Aunt Frances……

And then Uncle Frank says “ I always told y’all them Hogue girls were tough ol’ birds. Gosh it’s good to have them all together again.”

OH what a reunion it must be.

But I not only like to think about what is happening now.

I also like to remember the past.

A few weeks ago, my wife Peggy and I went to visit a lady that is Peggy’s second cousin who lives in Paulding County.

As we were talking. This lady mentioned that she owned a Cemetery lot here at Mt. Harmony.

I had no idea she had ever lived in Mableton.

As we continued to talk, I found out that years ago Aunt Francis had been her Sunday School Teacher.

I had never really thought about Aunt Francis being a teacher, but now, as I remember some of my times spent with her, I can see that she was teaching us in everything she did.

Why didn’t I see this before?

I wrote a blog about Aunt Francis’ 100th birthday last September.

I mentioned how I can remember when visiting her I would be playing with some toy cars in the room next to the kitchen and with all the windows open how she would be singing hymns aloud for all to hear.

She was teaching me at my young age not to be ashamed of my faith. To make a joyful noise and to praise God.



As I received comments from her grand children and my cousins about this blog, it was amazing how they also remembered her always singing hymns.

And not just the chorus or first verse. She would always sing the whole song.

In her singing she was teaching us all to do the job right and if we were gone to do something, to make sure we finished our task.

I remember we were once going on a trip to Houston Texas and thought it would be nice of us to take Aunt Frances to Dallas to see Jimmy on our way and pick her up on our way home.

　

I was so smart back then it never crossed my mind to look at a map before leaving.

You see, Dallas isn’t on the way to Houston.

Going to Houston by way of Dallas is like going to Miami by way of Memphis Tenn.

It was a long trip but Aunt Francis was a great traveling buddy. She told stories and sang songs and kept us laughing the whole way.

She made the trip much shorter and the journey a pleasant one.

We owned a Motor home at the time and on the way Aunt Frances got locked in the bathroom going down the road at 70 MPH.

All she did was laugh at herself in what some would consider an embarrassing situation.

In her laughing she taught me that sometimes you need to laugh at yourself.

I can remember after we moved to Kirkwood, Aunt Frances driving all the way out there from Mableton and just the two of us going down on Decatur Street to the Pawn shops looking for antiques.

I was only 7 or 8 years old but on those excursions she was teaching me to appreciate the things of the past and to have respect for the beauty of well crafted things.

On one of these trips, I recall she bought me my first set of Golf Clubs.

She was teaching me the gift of giving and although I don’t think she knew it at the time she was also teaching me that I would never be able to hit a 1 iron straight.

She was teaching me that there are some things no one can do.

Yep…My Aunt Frances was a teacher and I think the most important lesson she taught me was about family.

She taught me that without family, you don’t have much.

I learned much of her teachings about family through her children and times I spent with them.

Some of these times they probably don’t even remember.

Like the time Marlene and Dianne were going Ice skating for the first time.

I still remember their excitement before and after going.

I can still hear the giggling of the two young girls.

Or the time when Stuart came home from basic training a he gave me his Marine baseball cap. It was bright red with a yellow “M”. I wore it everywhere with pride as a young boy.

And I fondly remember Nicky taking me squirrel hunting down on the Sumner’s property and him teaching me to keep the lake between me and the Sumner’s house so we would get caught.

I don’t think we were suppose to be there.

And Jimmy,,, I remember you coming and taking me to qualifying down at the Atlanta speedway.

I was about ten years old but Aunt Francis had taught you to spend time with your kid cousin and to nurture him as he grew up.

　

She taught through example that you love, that you support, that you share and you stay in touch with family.

It’s not important that you give material things to each other but that you give of yourself.

Yep…Today we celebrate the life of Aunt Francis.

She was born Sept 25, 1912 and went to be with the Lord on June 29, 2013.

But one of the big lesson she taught is that the birthday and the day you depart this world aren’t what matters.

It’s the time in between those days that matter.

Yep…. Aunt Francis is now reaping her rewards but may her teachings, her memories and her stories live on for many years.

They will live on through all of you and may God bless her memory.

And once again I say,,,,,,, Isn’t God good.