I’ve enjoyed being unified in my relationships with others throughout my life. I was unified into a wonderful family with a great Dad and Mom and all eight of us kids. I was unified with my Boy Scout troop, my school class, and my soccer team. Later I was unified with my wife Sherry and our son. These are all relationships that endeavor to live the old motto “all for one and one for all.”
In elementary school, we had some classic “come back” lines in certain situations. If someone said they “loved” something, we would respond: “Then why don’t you marry it!” Another comeback when someone made a remark about us was, “Prove it!”
As the manager of “Wooly World” at the Toorak Hotel shopping plaza in Melbourne, Australia, I met a lot of men and women looking for high-end sheepskin garments. The most shocking experience of my sales life happened there in 1982.
Have you ever seen a newborn puppy or kitten, though blind, find their mother and begin to nurse? God built these “basics” (like feeding ourselves) into life. The basics are simple and easy to find and understand. When things get complicated, they can lose their value. Russian writer Leo Tolstoy said, “Give thanks to God who made necessary things simple, and complicated things unnecessary.”
I learned about my Dad by reading old newspapers about his Navy and Army service in World War II. I also heard stories about him from my Mom and other relatives. But the way I knew him best was by living with him, hearing what he had to say, and seeing his love for me in daily actions—like playing “catch” or praying together.
Ever talk to a spouse, friend, student, or coworker, and they haven’t heard a word you said. I’ve learned it pays to get people’s attention before I launch into what I want them to hear. God always pays attention to what we say.
It’s funny, but at some of the more challenging times in my life, ice cream has helped me. When I had a severe case of the measles, my Mom tenderly cared for me and gave me medicine with a nice bowl of vanilla ice cream.
Today is Mother’s Day. I think of my Mom who raised eight kids with the help of my Dad. Each day they had to focus on the job at hand: feeding, clothing, teaching, loving, and sharing their lives with us. We were a religious family and even had group prayer together. In her own way, my Mom taught us (often by example) to trust God in our everyday lives. God’s Word shows us how that trust brings perfect peace.
Lessons from Scouting Days
I have many fond memories of being a boy scout. There were 10-mile hikes through beautiful forests that ended in a refreshing swim in a cool spring, nights of camping under clear, star-filled skies, the fun of learning to swim and rescue others at summer camp.
I recently looked through my old scout handbook and found this:
“A boy who doesn’t know first aid is of little use when someone is hurt. A boy who can’t swim has little chance to rescue a drowning person. As a Scout you will know what to do–and do it. ”
II Timothy 4:3,4 [Moffatt Translation]:
For the time will come when people decline to be taught sound doctrine, they will accumulate teachers to suit themselves and tickle their own fancies, they will give up listening to the Truth and turn to myths.