ASLEEP ON THE JOB AGAIN

I once heard about a man who was resting on his forklift at work and unintentionally fell asleep. As he was waking up, he realized someone was standing beside him. It was his supervisor. So before he opened his eyes, he took a deep breath, and said, Amen.

That was told to me as a true story, but I don’t know if it is or just a joke. I thought it was funny. It made me laugh. It does sound like something that could have really happened because I’ve fallen asleep on the job a few times. All during lunch except the time I’m telling you about now.

One of my first full-time jobs was making vinyl siding. We worked three 12-hour shifts, and one 6-hour shift each week. There were 4 shifts. Days and nights at the first part of the week, and days and nights at the second part of the week. I was on the 4th shift which was nights, from Wednesday night through Saturday night. I would get off work on Sunday and be off until Wednesday night.

Those were weird hours, and they seemed so long. I couldn’t get much sleep in the daytime, mainly because I was used to sleeping at night, but a few of my friends and family were not as considerate as they could have been. One of my young cousins actually set the woods on fire behind my house one day while I was trying to sleep.

Being tired and sleepy at work is bad enough for eight hours, but it’s worse for a 12-hour shift, and it didn’t help that the job was boring.

I was packing vinyl siding into boxes as it came off a conveyor belt just after going through the mold to form it into its unique shape. When it came out at the end of the machine, it traveled through another mold just to keep it straight and in the same shape while it quickly cooled down. It was fenced-in with rollers and presses to aid in this process and to keep anyone from getting hurt. By the time it reached the end of the track and dropped onto the rollers, it was pretty much cooled off and in the shape it would be in for the next twenty-plus years.

Sometimes a piece of trash or something would get in the mix somewhere along the way and it would cause a hole to appear in the piece of siding. As it was pushed and pulled along the track it would usually become solid again when the piece of trash moved on, but sometimes it wouldn’t. When the hole remained for more than a few seconds we would have to quickly cut the piece of siding off behind the hole with a hacksaw and quickly put it back into the precisely formed track.

It was bound to happen, and one night it did. A huge hole formed in the piece of vinyl, and I knew it wasn’t about to work itself out. I grabbed the hacksaw and cut as fast as I could, but I wasn’t fast enough to get the siding back into the form in time. I had to try it again. I grabbed the quick-moving siding with my left hand and the saw with my right hand and began to cut it again. After only two strokes, I stopped. I knew what I had done. The second stroke had cut my thumb almost completely off.

I grabbed my bloody hand and ran to the restroom. As I washed my thumb in the sink, I could see the extent of the damage. The saw had hacked through my thumb, removing a portion as wide as the teeth on the blade. There was only a small section of the nail and flesh left intact. I was in a lot of pain.

I went to the emergency room and got it patched up. Then I spent the next week or so pushing a broom at work for twelve hours a night. That was worse than the accident itself. I was supposed to be on light duty for two weeks but after one, I couldn’t do it anymore. I bugged them until I convinced them to let me get back on the line.

I still wasn’t sleeping enough, so I started using caffeine pills to keep me awake at work. They made me sick so I had to stop taking them. Then one night, as I was packing the siding into boxes, I woke up about twenty feet away from my line. I was holding one piece of siding in my hands looking around. The plant manager and my supervisor were standing together by the break room looking at me and laughing their heads off. So I calmly walked back to my line and got caught up as quickly as I could.

Then, one morning as I was driving home, I fell asleep and slammed the side of my car into a bridge on the highway. It woke me up, and I jerked the steering wheel in the opposite direction and went into the opposite lane. Thank God there was no oncoming traffic there or I might not be here to tell the story.

After that, I had to quit and find a daytime job. That’s how I ended up with the position where I fell Asleep On The Job that I previously wrote about. You can read that post and one about another time I cut the end of my index finger almost all the way off at the links below.

God has been so good to me. I’ve been through a lot in my life and he’s always gotten me through whatever bad happened and I know he’ll always be there to help me. You can trust him, too. Never forget that.

ASLEEP ON THE JOB
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com/2017/07/asleep-on-job.html

THE DUNE BUGGY, THE BICYCLE, AND THE DRILL
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-dune-buggy-bicycle-and-drill.html

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WHERE WAS THE TV GOING?

Almost every morning on my way to work, I see the same little gray car headed East as I drive West. I guess I see a lot of the same cars every day, but I don’t really pay that much attention to them. Most cars these days look so similar that not many stand out. I probably notice the little gray Chevette because it’s an older, unique, car, and I had one exactly like it when I was younger, but this story is not about either of those cars. Let me explain.

Early, one Autumn morning, I was driving to work as usual. I was in the right Westbound lane, listening to the radio, minding my own business when a car slowly started to pass me in the left Westbound lane. I don’t even know what kind of car it was, now that I think about it. I think it was gray, but I’m not even sure about that. Something else grabbed my attention and that’s all I could focus on at the time. As the car advanced from beside me, I looked over as it slowly passed by. As I looked at the car, I noticed there was a big wide-screen TV box in the back seat.

As the car slowly faded from my sight, I began to wonder about a few things. Where were they going? Where were they coming from? Was the TV, brand new? Were they taking it home to set it up or were they returning it to the store where they purchased it? Were they taking it to be repaired? Was there even a TV in the box? Was it just an empty box they were using for something else? The questions seemed endless.

I thought this lingering interest in the TV box was a little strange myself, and you may think I’m a complete nut, but I kept thinking about it and drew some interesting parallels and conclusions.

We all see people every day headed down the road of life. We usually have no idea where they’re going nor where they’ll end up. Most of us probably don’t think twice about them unless they affect us somehow. We don’t know how rocky the road they’re on really is. We don’t even know which road they’re on; the narrow road that leads to heaven or the wide road that leads to hell. Some would say that’s nobody’s business, but if we’re Christians, we have a responsibility to them, and to God, to reach out to them and make sure they know that there’s a heaven to gain, and a hell to shun. Many unsaved people have no idea that by not choosing Jesus, they’re choosing Satan by default. Jesus said, “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30). There’s no middle ground.

So, take an interest in people; where they go, and what they do. What’s going on in their lives and in their families? Not to judge them, or gossip about them, but to know what their situation is. To understand what their immediate, personal needs are, and how we can help them; Be kind. Be a friend. Then you’ll know what, and how to be praying for them. You’ll find out their immediate situation, and their spiritual condition. Are they saved? Do they have a relationship with Jesus or are they bound for hell fire? Again, not to judge or gossip, but to help them.

Prayer is the most important thing you can do for anybody, but don’t stop there. Have you ever heard the phrase, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care?” That’s an interesting statement, and it’s certainly true. Many people think they have everything figured out. They think that knowing and believing that “there IS a God” is the same as “knowing God”, but that’s not the case at all. We get to know God by reading his word and communicating with him through prayer.

Many people miss what Jesus told Nicodemus that night so long ago. He said, “Everyone must be born again” (John 3:3-7). Referring to this, Paul said we are changed, and become a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). We’re recreated or “born again.” When we’re born again, our past sins are forgiven, and the Holy Spirit comes to live in our minds to lead and guide us and change us. That’s what we all need. It’s what we must all have if we want that eternal life to spend with Jesus. If you don’t have eternal life yet, please, turn to Jesus today and be saved. He’s eagerly waiting to give you the peace and comfort of salvation.

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THE NIGHT THE BEAR CAME AROUND

Ellen was a young girl and her brother Tom was even younger. Their mother had died and left their father to care for them alone. He did the best he could, but he had to leave them at home many times to work. They lived in the 1800s, and there were not many people in the area where they lived so there was no one to babysit. Tom and Ellen were even left alone at night sometimes.

One of those nights, they were sitting around the lamp reading when they heard an awful noise. They knew at once what it was because they had heard it before. It was a bear. It was just outside their little cabin in the woods. They were very afraid because they knew how dangerous bears could be, especially when they were hungry, and he bears around where they lived were very big.

Tom began to cry. Ellen tried her best to calm him. She told him everything would be okay. She told him that Jesus would send angels to protect them as he had so many times before. They prayed and asked him to make the bear go away.

Then they heard an even louder noise. It sounded like something very big hit the back of their house. It hit so hard that it shook the whole place. They didn’t know what it was but they were even more afraid now. Maybe it was an even bigger bear trying to get in. Now they were in danger from the front and the back. They continued to pray and listen to see what would happen next. Soon, they didn’t hear the bear out front anymore and nothing from the back. Eventually, they realized they were safe. They thanked God for sending the bears away and asked him to continue to protect them and soon they were asleep.

When they woke the next morning they could see the bright light of the sun shining through the cracks in their little house. God had brought them through a frightening experience to a brand new day. As they went about their day, they happened to notice the back of the house. They were surprised to see a large rock lying against the wood plank wall. “That’s the noise we heard,” Ellen said. “It wasn’t another bear at all. Maybe God made the rock roll down the hill and hit the house to scare the bear away. I’ll bet he did. I’m sure he did.” They thanked God again and again as they continued their day with a stronger faith in Jesus.

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LIKE PULLING TEETH

Have you ever had a loose tooth? I think it’s safe to say that everybody has. It’s usually not long until they come out all by themselves. I lost several teeth this way when I was young. I remember being told that if I put them under my pillow the tooth fairy would take them and leave me some money. I did that several times until I finally realized the adults in my family were the tooth fairies.

One day I was at my mom and dad’s and I had a loose tooth. Well, my dad told me I didn’t need to wait for it to come out by itself because I might swallow it. Then I wouldn’t get any money from the tooth fairy. He suggested we tie one end of a string around my tooth and the other end around a doorknob. I was reluctant because I was afraid it would hurt, but I went along with his plan. When we got everything set up and I was just the right distance from the open door, my dad quickly slammed it. As it closed with a thud, my head jerked forward and the string fell to the floor. It didn’t hurt as bad as I thought it was going to. Maybe it didn’t work. Well, that’s what I thought. My dad pulled the string up from the floor and hanging there on the end was my bloody tooth. It did work.

That one was easy, but when I grew up, I had to have a tooth pulled because it was causing me pain. It wasn’t loose, so the dentist had to cut it out. One of my wisdom teeth had grown in wrong and caused the tooth in front of it to develop a cavity, so he had to remove two teeth to get the bad one out. It took him two hours to remove those two teeth. Now, I truly understand the expression, “Like Pulling Teeth.”

Just like my loose tooth that needed to come out, we sometimes have things in our lives that we need to do, but we put them off because we are afraid. We make things hard, “Like Pulling Teeth” that aren’t loose. Many times, we need to just do it and get it over with. Here’s where we fail, and this is what leads to fear. We should always ask God what we need to do first. He needs to be a part of every decision we make, and he will be if we always put him first and always seek to please him.

Too many of us want to be in control of our own lives and do what we want, but then we run to God to fix whatever mess we get into by doing what we want. We make things “like pulling teeth.” Stop, Look, and Listen! God is all-knowing. He has wisdom that we could never have and he does know what’s best for each of us in any given situation. We need to realize that and accept it.

God doesn’t want to be our boss. He wants to be our guide. He wants us to be happy, healthy, and wise. He wants us to prosper. He has plans for each of us. If we follow him, we will not go wrong. Following God is more than just walking the same path behind him, though. The Greek word for FOLLOW means “to be in the same way with,” or “to accompany.” He is right there WITH us on our journey to protect us and guide us.

Talk to God. Communicate with him at all times, not just when you need something. Build your life around him and his word, The Bible. Ask him what you should do, daily, and do what he says and you’ll soon find yourself happy. No, everything won’t be perfect but you’ll make fewer mistakes and bad decisions. Don’t make life hard “like pulling teeth.” Give it all to God and follow him. Life will be better here, and you’ll be able to live with God forever when this life is over. Give it a try. I dare you.

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18 WHEELS AND A DOZEN PRAISES

I remember it like it was yesterday. Well, maybe not that vividly, but pretty well. My family and I went to a used car lot to buy a new car for me to drive back and forth to work each day. Do you get the joke? New car, used car lot. Ok, well, it was new to me. After praying first, we looked at several different cars and were about to decide that we were not going to find one there that we felt good about buying. 

That’s when we saw it. It wasn’t in the rows with the other cars. It was sitting beside the building with some other less desirable ones.

I tried it out and felt pretty good about the dependability and the price, so, after my boys climbed in, I drove it away as my wife and daughter followed.

The car was a small, blue Geo Metro. It had twelve-inch tires and only three cylinders. It only had 80 MPR on the speedometer, but I don’t even know if it could do eighty. If it could, it did one morning, about five o’clock. I was taking my kids to the babysitter on my way to work. 

We were going through town, minding our own business, and obeying the speed limit. I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw an eighteen-wheeler coming up on us pretty fast. I said something about it to the kids and they looked back just in time to see it bearing down on us. I saw that it wasn’t going to stop, or change lanes so I put the pedal to the metal. 

We were going as fast as that little car could possibly go. It was shaking all over and screaming, and so were the kids. We were only a foot or two away from being twisted up under that big highway monster. We think the driver may have been falling asleep or something. Anyway, the truck finally started slowing down and we started pulling away from it.

Thank God! We were safe again. We were so grateful to be alive and I praise the Lord for saving us that morning. I don’t mind telling you I was scared to death and so were my kids. I don’t remember praying while it was going on. It all happened so fast and it was over before we knew it. That’s one reason why it’s so important to stay in constant communication with God. 

We always prayed before we drove away to go anywhere. We would God to be with us and protect us and keep us safe there and back and we still do all these years later. I talk to God throughout the day. It’s easy when you truly know that he is right there with you constantly.

Sometimes people make the mistake of thinking he’s just up in heaven and we have to kneel and close our eyes to talk to him like we’re making a phone call. Some people even think you have to go to a church building to communicate with God, but that’s the wrong idea. We should always be reverent when speaking to our Creator, of course, but if you’ve been born again, then the Holy Spirit is living in your mind. You’re a child of God. You can talk to him any time and anywhere, in any condition and any position, whether you’re kneeling, standing, or lying down, and with your eyes open or closed. 

The important thing is to talk to him. He’s always listening and he’s always talking to us. Sometimes we let our minds drift into areas where they shouldn’t be, or neglect to take time to talk to him. Sometimes we’re angry and sometimes we may sin. In those times it becomes harder for us to hear his voice, but he’s always there. He said he would never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

1 Thessalonians 5:17 says we should pray without ceasing. That’s constant communication. That’s how God changes us into holy people. He tells us what to do and what not to do as we listen to him. So talk, listen, and communicate with our loving God and allow him to sanctify you, and I’ll see you on the other side, at the end of our journey.

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I MISS MY SISTER AND MY FRIEND

I was three years old, and my younger sister, Loretta, and I lived with our grandmother in a little house in Theo, Mississippi. Our mother came to visit one day and introduced us to our new baby sister. Her name was Shelia. She was the first baby I ever remember seeing, and she was so beautiful. She reminded me of a baby doll like Loretta had. I just wanted to hold her and never let her go, but soon it was time for her to leave. We didn’t want her to go but we all said our goodbyes and she was gone.

We were so sad, so I got my mother’s old guitar and told my grandmother I wanted to write a song about our new sister. She got a pencil and a piece of paper, and I began to “play” the guitar, and “sing.” Can you imagine what that sounded like? Years later, I came across that piece of paper with that song written on it in my grandmother’s things. It was only a few lines, so I rewrote it and gave it to Shelia in a picture frame on her birthday one year. She loved it and always said it meant the world to her.

When we were younger, mom and dad would bring her to visit from time to time, and we would go see them occasionally. Then, when she was five years old, she came to live with us. She was my best friend. I could tell her anything. We shared a lot together. I could always make her laugh. Several times, I have said, that if I could clone her, I’d always have an audience to laugh at all my jokes.

She had her share of problems but she didn’t let too many others see them. She had a good fun-loving personality and she usually had a smile on her face. People loved her. She had so many friends. She fought cancer for eight years before losing the battle. I felt so helpless sitting there watching her die, but there was nothing I could do. I just wanted to hold her and never let her go, but soon it was time for her to leave. We didn’t want her to go but we all said our goodbyes and she was gone.

I could never forget her, or the unconditional love she had for me. She’ll always be in my heart. I loved her from the first day I saw her. We were best friends when we were growing up. She never judged or condemned me and she would never allow me to say negative things about myself. She always had good things to say about me, and she always tried to encourage me. There are just no words to describe how much I miss her. I wish I could hear her voice again. I wish I could hear her laugh again, and see her encouraging smile.

Someday, my wish will come true. It’s such a blessing to know that she was saved and we’ll all be together again when Jesus returns. We’ll get to see her again, and Daddy and Momma, and our grandmother, and the rest of our family and friends who were born again before they died. I’m looking forward to that day.

It’s important to know that we’re saved. The Bible tells us that we can know (1 John 5:13). It’s sad when a loved one dies and leaves the family to wonder if they’re saved or not, but it will be even sadder for the person who dies without being born again. As long as we’re breathing, there is hope, but when death comes to our door, our fate is sealed. If we’re saved, we’re saved. If we’re lost, we’re lost. So don’t wait a moment longer. Make that decision today, and live forever in the presence of our Lord. You won’t regret it.

Related Article: What Must I Do To Be Saved?

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3 GIRLS, 3 GUYS, AND A GREMLIN

I’ll never forget the year I turned nineteen. My cousin invited me to go to church with him, so I did. I loved that church and I loved the people. I still do. They were so kind and loving and fun to be around. They didn’t condemn me because I wasn’t a Christian. They just loved me, and showed me kindness, and made me feel like part of the family.

I was raised in church and was taught that the Bible is God’s word, but when I was sixteen, I left home and left all that behind, but now, I was going to church several nights each week, and reading the Bible again. My life was much better. I was headed in a positive direction and I actually felt good about it. As I read more about Jesus and got to know him, I grew to love him. Soon, I gave my life to him and was born again.  

Some of my cousins and friends started coming to church, and we made new friends. We had a prayer meeting night, a youth night, and a choir practice night each week. We would hang out in the little town some nights after services. We did a lot of fun stuff and had many adventures and I learned that I didn’t need drugs or alcohol to enjoy life.    

Things aren’t always perfect, though, just because we are serving God. I want to tell you about a few adventures we had that weren’t pleasant at all, but I know God was with us, and when I look back on them now, I sometimes laugh.

We were taking one of our friends home one night after church when I ran into a mud puddle on the edge of the road. The wheel quickly jerked and pulled the right two wheels into the shallow ditch. I had heard people say, “If that ever happens, turn your wheels back to the road and gas it, and you’ll come back up out of the ditch.” Well, I took their advice and floored it as I turned the wheel back toward the road. It might have worked except for one small detail. The ditch didn’t remain at a consistent depth. It quickly got deeper. Really deep, in fact. Before I knew it, the car was on its side and we were all piled up on each other on the passenger’s side of the car. We had to climb up to get out the driver’s side door, then we had to walk for a few miles to get some help. We finally got the car out, and we were on our way again. God protected us from getting hurt. The side of my car was all bent and scratched up, but we weren’t. Praise the Lord for that.

We were at McDonald’s one night and saw some of our friends there. They were in another car so we were sitting alongside each other facing opposite directions. When they started driving forward, I started backing up, staying beside them, and continuing to talk to them. I glanced back at the parking lot behind me and knew there were no other cars back there. It was all clear. Then, all of a sudden, my car came to an abrupt stop. I had hit a light pole with a concrete base. We were traveling pretty slow, so nobody was hurt and neither was the car. I never did that again without looking back.

Another time, we were headed to church in that little yellow Gremlin. There were three guys and three girls. There were two guys in the back seat and I was driving. The girls all wanted to sit in the front seat together. We were packed in like sardines and one girl was sitting on the other two girls’ laps. When we reached the main highway, I stopped. Then, as I drove out and turned to the right, the girls all fell over on me and grabbed the steering wheel. It felt like it locked. I couldn’t straighten the car up. We quickly headed for the steep embankment and would have gone over if I hadn’t slammed on the brakes just in time. God was with us that day, too, and gave me the wisdom to know just what to do.

As I look back on my early days as a Christian, I’m encouraged. I remember what my life was before Jesus became part of it, and I can imagine how much worse it might have become if I hadn’t started following him. He changed my life in so many ways, and I’m so thankful.

He knew exactly what I needed and he knew the exact time I needed it. He sent me to that little church where his servants would show me his love. They loved me just like I was, and they allowed God to change me in his own time. That’s the way it should be done. We’re fishers of men, but we have to allow God to clean them. We can plant the seeds, and even water them, but it’s God who causes the trees to produce fruit (1 Corinthians 3:6).

It’s amazing how God can turn a life around and give it meaning and purpose. That’s what he did for me that night he came into my heart in that little church. When we get discouraged, and the pressures of life get us down, we need to remember where God brought us from and how he changed our lives. Many times, looking back will give us the strength and courage to keep moving forward.

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UNCLES AND AUNTS, TURKEYS AND PEACOCKS

When I was a little boy we would occasionally go visit relatives who lived a long distance from us. When I say a long distance, I mean farther than we could walk in an hour. My grandmother didn’t have a car, so we walked when we would go to the store, or to visit our aunt, or friends in the neighborhood, which was all within about a two or three-mile radius. To go any further than that we depended on our aunt or a taxi cab.

Aunt Lee had an old white Chevrolet car. I should say, it would be old now, but back then it was probably only a few years old. She had that car for as long as I could remember. Once in a while, we would get in that car and go visit those relatives who lived too far away to walk.

We had lots of aunts and uncles. My mom had two sisters, but her brother died when he was only eleven. My dad had two brothers and four sisters. Those were the younger uncles and aunts. We didn’t get to see them much until we were older. My grandmother’s brothers and sisters and their spouses were our great-uncles and aunts. They are the ones we visited the most.

When we would go to their homes, we would usually stay for hours, and many times all day long. Sometimes we would even stay all night. I usually loved going to visit them. They would always hug us, kiss us, and tell us how cute we were, and how much we had grown since the last time they saw us.

I remember going to visit Uncle Wilberth and Aunt Adelia over on Pine Mountain. I think they were actually our great-uncle and aunt. Uncle Howard and Aunt Lorene lived uptown in Corinth for many years. Then, when we were older, they moved up around the Tennessee state line. Uncle B.Y. and Aunt Rachel lived by the highway in Dead Man’s Curve for a while, then they moved a few miles east on the other side of the highway. Then they moved over to the Bethlehem area when we were older. They came to visit us pretty regularly. I think Uncle Marvin and Aunt Ludie lived somewhere on the other side of Lone Oak, and Kossuth. I’m not sure. They both died when we were pretty young, so I don’t know exactly where they lived. From what I can remember, their house was built like the house on the old TV show, “Little House On The Prairie.”

Uncle Elbert and Aunt Effie lived at the bottom of Bethlehem hill. On the hottest days of summer, that was the coolest place to be. They had lots of trees, and a big spring-fed creek running right through their yard. The spring had created a pond that was only a few feet deep with water so clear you could see the bottom, and it was full of Lilly pads. They had made an area where you could walk down to the edge of the creek and get some of the spring water to drink. It was cold and delicious.

I remember going to see Uncle Ervin and Aunt Bonnie. They had a yard full of guineas. They were funny-looking blue and gray colored birds, and they just walked around making the most annoying sound I had ever heard. I only remember seeing Uncle Ervin a few times. He died when I was young but we continued to visit Aunt Bonnie for many years. It happened about the same way with Uncle Willie and Aunt Luola, except I don’t remember him at all. He died before I could get to know him, but when Aunt Luola would talk about him, I knew that she really loved him, and missed him terribly. She had two peacocks running around in her yard and they were so beautiful. We could never get close enough to touch one of them, but every time we visited her, we would find a few peacock feathers in the yard to take home with us.

One morning, Aunt Lee put a wooden box in the car as we were getting ready to go visit Aunt Luola. She wanted to give us a cat. At the end of our visit, the cat was put into the wooden box and the box went back into the car. When we got home, Aunt Lee took the box out and set it on the ground. The second she opened the lid, that cat jumped out and ran across the yard like a scalded dog. It ran across the road and into the woods. We only saw it a time or two after that, and only for a minute or so then, and only from a distance. For months, though, we could hear it at the edge of the woods crying. We took food and left it there for it every day. A few months later, we moved and had to leave the cat behind.

Uncle Roy and Aunt Daisy were our great uncle and aunt. They lived in a beautiful valley called “Horseshoe Bend.” They had cows, mules, and chickens, but what I remember the most were the two big turkeys running free in their yard. The male was huge. He was almost as tall as me and he was mean. He would chase me and my sister sometimes. It would scare us to death. Uncle Roy had to kick the thing two or three times one day to make him leave me alone. Other than having to avoid that killer turkey, I really enjoyed our visits with them.

There’s nothing like childhood memories. I cherish them. They take me back to a much different time than what we live in today. A time when everything seemed simple to me and I had no worries, except for the occasional crazy animal attacking me. Those memories make me think of what the world might have been like before sin entered in and messed everything up. Then I’m reminded that someday, God will return the earth to its original state, and we will be able to see and experience all the beauty and peace that we have missed out on because of the curse of sin. It will be an awesome experience and I don’t want to miss it. I’m looking forward to that day. I hope to see you there.

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TO ALL THE DOGS I'VE LOVED BEFORE

I remember a song I heard in the early Eighties called “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before.” It was written by Hal David and Albert Hammond. It has been recorded by several artists and bands, in several different languages, but the one I remember the most is the version by Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson, from 1984. I have always loved parodies of songs and I’ve written several over the years, so when I was thinking about a name for this story about dogs I’ve loved and lost, the title “To All the Dogs I’ve Loved Before.” just jumped out at me.

I remember having several different pets, other than dogs, that I truly loved. Most of them loved to receive affection but were not that great at returning it. There’s no animal that I know of that returns affection quite like a dog. Their love seems to be unconditional.

The first dog I remember having as a friend was named Clete. I wrote about him a while back in the post titled “Our Best Friend.” I’ll put a link at the end of this post in case you missed it. Check it out to see the strange way he got his name. I don’t have a clue what breed he was, but he was a brown and white mid-sized dog. He was with us for several years before he died. He was family, and it broke our hearts when he left us.

Then, there was Bonnie. She was a mutt. Her mother was a small black Chihuahua named Pretty, but Bonnie was much bigger than her mother. She was very smart, too, but something was wrong with her. She had a litter of puppies, but they all died within a few days after birth. The same thing happened to her next litter, with one exception. As puppy after puppy died, one little black and white male kept growing. When all the others were gone, he was still going strong. I named him Sparky. He was a miracle and I loved him. I was so happy he didn’t die, but that happiness was cut short. Early one morning when I went to see him, I found that he had died during the night. I was so heartbroken.

My aunt, who was my dad’s sister, had given Bonnie to my parents, and they had let me have her. I was told my aunt wanted her back. By this time she had given birth to another litter of puppies. They all died except two. Those two had made it several months and were still going strong. I named my favorite one Dee Cee from the name of a pair of jeans I had at the time. My grandmother said I could only keep one dog so I gave Bonnie back to my aunt and later, I gave the other dog to a distant uncle. When I would come home from school DeeCee would always run out to meet me and jump up into my arms. We played together all the time. Once again, I had allowed myself to love an animal, setting myself up for another heartbreak, which did eventually come.

One day we came home and my best friend wasn’t there to meet me. I searched the neighborhood and looked everywhere for him, but hours turned to days, and days turned to weeks, and I finally realized he was gone for good. I never saw him again.

I had other dogs over the years, but I wouldn’t let myself get too attached to them, so when something happened to them, I wouldn’t be hurt so bad. Several years ago I wrote a short story called “Billy And His Strange Pet.” It was an allegory or parable about my experience with losing pets that I loved. I’ll put a link at the end of this post in case you missed that one.

I grew up and had children of my own, but I still would not allow myself to get attached to animals. Several years ago, God revealed some things to me about myself, and he began to soften my calloused heart. That healing started with a true understanding of forgiveness and continued on to include an appreciation for life, love, and family.

We need to appreciate the time we have with those we love, and when they’re no longer with us, we will have the memories of the love we shared together, whether that love is shared with humans or animals. It has been said many times that love is a universal language. The Bible says God is Love (1 John 4:8, 16) and love covers all sins (Proverbs 10:12), so everything we do should be done with love (1 Corinthians 16:14). Give love, and cherish the love you receive. In the end, it will make a world of difference, to you and everyone in your life.

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RELATED POSTS BELOW ---

Our Best Friend
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com/2017/05/our-best-friend.html

Billy And His Strange Pet 
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com/2015/07/billy-and-his-strange-pet.html

I Forgive You, Mr. Richmond
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com/2015/08/i-forgive-you-mr-richmond.html

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6