Skip to main content

God, Childhood, and His Plan

I can’t remember when church wasn’t a consistent and constant part of my life, and it is a real challenge to come up with many memories that don’t, in some form or another, include gospel music.
Growing up on a cotton farm meant a lot of hard work.  We didn’t hire help because my family did it all.  You can imagine how excited I was as a kid to plan for the weekends when I knew gospel singing would be a huge part of Saturday and Sunday.  Twice a year, those convention songbooks came in from the Stamps-Baxter Music Company.  I remember Daddy and Mama talking about how great it was that a few of the men paid for those books and carried them to every Friday night singing, Saturday night singing, Sunday afternoon singing, Sunday night singing – and I’ll not overlook all-day Sunday singings.  Daddy, Mama, and others in the community offered to pay for books but Mr. Willie, Mr. Claron, Mr. Tommy, and others who paid for them wouldn’t take a dime.  It was just what they did…they made sure others could enjoy the new songs, learn to sight read them, and get all the parts right.  For the daughter of a cotton farmer who “lived” for the weekends of gospel singing, they were real heroes!
I drove my school piano teacher half-crazy because I learned to play the piano by ear, and I was always thrilled when called on to play for a song or two as the song leaders were called up.  These were the places where a love for music took root in my life.  Admittedly, I took a lot of it for granted for many years, but I will NEVER again minimize those early opportunities.

So, I wonder, what early memories come to your mind today as you read this… those opportunities that you know God dropped right in your early path? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God The Modern Father

   These are hard days.  It's tough for ministries.  It's tough for churches.  It's tough for parents.  It's tough for men, and it's tough for women.  It's tough to know who you can trust and who you can't.  It's tough to weed out fact from a preponderance of fiction.  In general, life is hard.    Did you know the Bible promises that life will be hard?  In a recent conversation with Ann about the overall decline of the church... why congregations take off and then systematically shrink and ultimately dissolve... I believe the Lord dropped a relevant truth into my heart.  It's not anything I haven't said before, but it is in a different context.    I'm seeing a trend in making converts without discipleship.  And, in the cases where discipling does take place, I fear there is some error in the teaching which could, in very large part, be responsible for the decline of the American church. ...
3 comments
Read more

No Matter What

Several years ago a friend shared with me that his route to work every day took him through a toll booth....and he tried to always choose a certain booth. This is because the gentleman manning that booth was an elderly man who always had something "bright and sunny" to say to him. Every morning my friend would hear "Have a good day, no matter what!" Now, there were days my friend drove up to that toll booth with zillions of questions in his head of how he was gonna make it through a challenging day that was always before him when he arrived at his workplace. But he just kept those words in his head...and heart..."Have a good day, no matter what". Now, that's a choice, isn't it? "No matter what"???? I don't know about you, but I honestly don't find that coming naturally to me...it's a struggle to find sunshine on those cloudy, dreary mornings...'cause it just doesn't show up in my eyesight. But, that's w...
3 comments
Read more

From here to there

A lot of you are familiar with or at least know of my only niece, Scarlett (or Sweet Scarlett, as I often refer to her). A brilliant gal in the prime of her life and career was involved in a horrible car accident at the age of 36, leaving her with a severe brain injury. God has brought her so far….so many accomplishments that she wasn’t “supposed” to ever achieve. A couple of years ago while she was going through a particularly hard struggle, she said to me, “Aunt Ann, I know I’m gonna make it, but right now I’m in that in between place”. I knew exactly what she was saying…and I’d imagine you do, too, right? We believe that God’s gonna walk with us and get us to the other side…however, sometimes it just seems like a longggggg way from here to there, doesn’t it? We’re gonna make it..but there are times we sure do need a hand to hold or place to rest on the journey….’cause we aren’t “there” yet…and we need to hear from somebody, who actually cares where we are struggling, that w...
6 comments
Read more