Month: May 2012
SEARCHING FOR IMMORTALITY?
I recently received a magazine in the mail and something it said would be amusing…if it were not so sad.
Right there smack dab on the front cover is a picture of a doctor and the words: Dr. ______’s search for Biological Immortality.
Do you think he is going to find it?
This means that he is searching and longing for “a physical body that will never die.” The only place this doctor or anyone else is going to find immortality is in the Bible…and it will not be biological immortality…it will be spiritual.
This can be searched for as long as a person lives, but it can not be found anywhere except through the Bible and what it teaches!
IN RETROSPECT
As I look out my kitchen window
Thinking of the years gone past;
‘Cause I’m thinking of the things
That will truly, truly last.
The okra stalks are fading…
Pea vines ruining in the soil,
But the garden with its bounty
Was worth all the sweat and toil.
And the family you are raising
Amid all the sweat and grime
Will be worth it in the future
If you now redeem the time.
©Edna l. Ingram, September, 2010
Memorial Day Can Bring Sad Memories:
Civil War Battle Ground in Vicksburg, Mississippi
Memorial Day brings back such sad memories for most of us. Bobby’s grandfather served in the Civil War and was a prisoner of war. He survived and lived to raise eleven children.
Bobby’s Dad, Allen Grady Ingram
Bobby’s Dad served in World War 1. Bobby’s family lost a cousin, Jonah Ingram, in World War II. His brother, Leroy was a prisoner of war in the same war. He wrote a letter back to his parents in Lorenzo, Tx to let them know he was ok. Many of his family since then, including himself, have served our country in various depts of the military.
My Dad was probably not the right age during World War II but even if he had been, he had 3 little ones to raise by himself after our mother died in 1941, so he wouldn’t have been called anyway.
I lost an uncle (by marriage) Tony Clevenger in the Korean War. He came to see us in 1950 and that was the last time we saw him. He was missing in action several years before we knew he had died. His son, Robert Michael (Clevenger) Crosby (adopted by his stepdad) served in the Vietnam War. He saw the enemy flying overhead one night and he was quite a ways from his buddies. He knew the enemy was looking for their camp, and he lit a torch to defray them from his buddies and lost his life immediately. He was a Christian and he knew some of his buddies were not. The last time I saw him was when he was 2 years old…a little red-haired toddler. His mother told me his army history and she is rightfully proud of him!
Many others today are serving their country too…in an un-military way, since we haven’t had the draft in the past few years. They are living a good life and raising good citizens for our country. This is serving our country as just as surely as the military…but we are so proud and appreciate so much, the ones who volunteer to protect our freedoms today! Thanks to the ones who choose to not go…and to the ones who do.
…IN THE DAYS OF OUR YOUTH
Ecclesiastes 12: 1-8
Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”—
before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark,
and the clouds return after the rain; when the keepers of the house tremble,
and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few,
and those looking through the windows grow dim; when the doors to the street are closed
and the sound of grinding fades; when people rise up at the sound of birds,
but all their songs grow faint; when people are afraid of heights
and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms
and the grasshopper drags itself along and desire no longer is stirred.
Then people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the streets.
* * * * *
Note: Good advice from the wisest man who lived. (Solomon, whom God gave great wisdom). We may wait too long to remember our Creator…and our minds may not be able to, but we would have had countless opportunities and spurned them. How sad and how tragic, but how blessed are the ones who remember Him in the days of their youth!
FAMILY NAME
YOUR NAME
You got it from your father,
It was the best he had to give,
And right gladly he bestowed it
It is yours, the while you live.
you may lose the watch he gave you
And another you may claim,
But remember, when you’re tempted,
To be careful of his name.
It was fair the day you got it,
And a worthy name to bear,
When he took it from his father
There was no dishonor there.
Through the years he proudly wore it,
To his father he was true,
And that name was clean and spotless
When he passed it on to you.
Oh there’s much that he has given
That he values not at all,
He has watched you break your playthings
In the days when you were small.
You have lost the knife he gave you
And you’ve scattered many a game,
But you’ll never hurt your father
If you’re careful with his name.
It is yours to wear forever,
Yours to wear the while you live,
Yours, perhaps some distant morn,
Another boy to give.
And you’ll smile as did your father,
With a smile that all can share,
If a clean name and a good name
You are giving him to wear.
Edgar A. Guest
I bought a new skillet the other day. I wanted a heavy one because it is so easy to scorch food in a light one. I was shopping for it and I picked up one and it was too light…I knew it wouldn’t do at all. So I chose one that felt heavy for its size and then I picked up another one and it felt even heavier, so I bought it because it was also larger. Wrong choice! But why?
The next day when I had washed it and started to use it, I discovered why it seemed heavier. The handle was made from really heavy material…but the skillet-part itself was really thin and light. That’s a very clever way to disguise an inferior product to someone who is not paying real attention.
Sometimes people are like this skillet and the manufacturer that made it. They may have a heavy handle (good family name) but they may not live up to the values of that good family name, as the ones before them had. When they don’t live up to the name they received when they were born…they are apt to disappoint the ones who love them the most.
MARRIAGE IS FOR LIFE
My favorite picture of Wendell & Kathy.
Marriage is for Life
What is it like to be married for 50 years? Too many in this world will never know what it’s like to be married to the same person for that long.They will never know the joy, the comfort, the pure sweetness of being married to the same person for 50 or even 60 or 70 years. They will never have the treasure of an unbroken home in which to nurture those precious little ones who are born to them. What a tragedy!
In their old age, they will never know the pure joy that comes from discussing together the memories they have of the growing up of the children that they both had pleasure in raising. They will never understand that you can disregard a fierce argument or disagreement without it affecting your love or your respect for each other…because you have learned that: “This too shall pass.” Some will never have the time to know each other well enough to blend together as truly one.
When we said those wedding vows, we pledged to remain faithful until death separates us. I have never seen vows that states that we will be faithful as long as our mate is faithful or until my pride is hurt…but it is always UNTIL death separates us.Our society is becoming one where commitment is unheard of and/or old fashioned…and where vows are taken lightly. May it cease to be so and hopefully a cure for our nation’s ills, yea even the ills of our whole planet will be realized.
-Edna L. Ingram
At what point in time did we let peer pressure and society take over for us as parents?
When we first got Baby Bird, he was only about a month old and didn’t have his long tail and wing feathers. He was so cute! Bobby was wearing cowboy boots and he would hold his foot up to the cage and Baby Bird would try to sing and whistle.
When he learned how to do that, every time Bobby would stick the toe of his boot up there, Baby Bird would start singing and when he learned to ‘talk’, he would say “Give me sugar” and he would “kiss” the toes of his boot. Since then he has learned lots of sentences: “Whatcha doing? What’s your problem?
Gonna get a cup of coffee. Got to go to work, be back in a little while and a few others.
Well he is 8 years old now and he still loves Bobby’s boots. When he has them on… Baby Bird’s eyes follow them. When he’s sitting on Bobby’s shoulder, he almost falls off looking down trying to see those boots. He loved Bobby’s boots so much that when he changed into his walking shoes, it upset him. I don’t think any kind of “peer pressure” could make Baby Bird like loafers, house shoes, high heels or walking shoes better than he likes boots…that first item in his infant-hood!
This started me to thinking about our children. If a little 1 month old cockatiel can be so influenced by a pair of boots…what about our children? Those little dear ones, who come to us as a tiny bundle, pure and clean and with no heavy baggage of pre-conceived ideas…and they are like little sponges willing to soak up everything in their environment…and soon they learn to talk and to walk and we have them as long as 18 years or more right under our own roof!
How much more could we train and influence our little children, who can learn to converse with us and bond with us and have a natural affection for us and who can learn from the examples we set?
I don’t believe that any person can come into their lives and so influence them to the point that they forsake their values…if those first items in their lives (mother and daddy) do their jobs!
So…where have we failed? At what point in time did we quit trying…and let their teenage peers and the schools and society…take over for us and start blaming them?
JESUS…HE IS LORD!
JESUS…HE IS LORD!
Those Roman soldiers who nailed Jesus to the cross, did so as to just a common man like the thieves that day. They did not recognize Him as the Son of God at that time. He was just one of a crowd to them. I say, at that time, because later he did according to Matthew 27:54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God.”
How sad that we in His church are sometimes like those Roman soldiers! If we recognized Him as the Son of God, who loved us enough to go through the cruelty of the cross…would we worship Him only when it is convenient for us to do so? Would we stay home from worship to cook a meal for special company, or let material things, our profession, children, mothers, fathers and earthly gain and pleasure keep us from the worship assembly? Do we really recognize Him for what He is? How much like the Roman soldiers and the Jewish people of that day are we?
Yes, we worship God when it is convenient for us and we call it sacrifice! Listen, while God speaks to the Israelites by Malachi in chapter 1:
” …A son honoureth his father and a servant his master: If then I be a Father, where is My honour? And if I be a Master, where is my fear? ” says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise My Name.” And ye say, ‘Wherein have we despised Thy Name?’ “
“Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, ‘Wherein have we polluted Thee?’ In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible.’ “
“And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person?” saith the Lord of hosts.
“Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? Neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.”
“Ye said also, ‘Behold what a weariness is it!’ And ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame and the sick thus ye brought an offering: Should I accept this of your hand? But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and My Name is dreadful among the heathen. ( Malachi 1: 6-10 and verses 13 and 14).
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