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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CARTOONS, DOLLS, AND MOSQUITOES

Have you ever misunderstood something someone said? Have you ever thought you knew something only to find out later that the mental concept you had of it was quite different from the way it actually was? It happens to all of us, especially when we are young.

As you may or may not know, my sister and I lived with our grandmother from the time I was three and she was two. I remember a time in those early years when our grandmother got really sick. I don’t know what was wrong with her, but she was sick enough that she couldn’t take care of us. She couldn’t take care of herself either, so we went to our aunt’s house so she could take care of her. Maybe she had something contagious because they sent us to stay with our mom and dad until she got well. I don’t remember how long we stayed there but it was quite an adventure. I’ll write more about it later, but for this post, I want to focus on just one thing from that time.

They only had one bedroom, so when it was bedtime they slid two recliners together facing each other in the living room, next to our younger sister’s crib, and that was where we slept while we were there. We slept with our grandmother at home so it was a bit scary being away from her, and in a room with no adults to protect us. We kept calling our mother and asking for water and other things. Finally, I remember our dad telling us that if we didn’t go to sleep a big mosquito would crawl through the keyhole and get us.

I pictured a giant mosquito standing upright like the ones in the old cartoons. It was as big as my dad and climbing through the keyhole one limb at a time. That scared me to death because at the time I didn’t know cartoons were not real. I was quite a bit older before I realized that some things on TV were only make-believe. I remember pulling the covers up around my neck, and the next thing I knew it was morning.

Another time my grandmother told us about her mom having twins. She said they were born too early, and they were very small. They only survived a few days before they died. Their names were Mark and Cora. My grandmother said they were so small they both fit on a pillow and they looked like little dolls lying there. Well, being a child and having the mind of a child, I pictured them actually looking like little toy dolls and that’s how I saw them for years.

As I was thinking about these and other times the visual concept that my mind created of something I was being told about, I thought about the Bible. There are so many things in God’s word that we can only imagine as we read. There are things that happened in places we have never seen, and almost as far back as six thousand years. Then there are the things God says will happen in the future. There’s the resurrection, heaven, and the new earth. These things are so far beyond our imagination that anything our simple minds can come up with can’t even be close to what it will actually be like. Look what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:9

1 Corinthians 2:9 
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Now take a look at what God says in Isaiah 55:8-9.

Isaiah 55:8-9 
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Compared to the intelligence of God, the creator of everything that has, or ever will exist, the smartest of us are only children in intellect. There’s no way we can completely understand all these things right now. Like the song says, we can only imagine.

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WHEN DADDY CAME TO VISIT

I was somewhere between three, and five years old, and it was early Autumn. It was cloudy, and dreary outside, so my sister and I were playing inside when we heard a knock on the door. As we wondered who it could be, our grandmother went to see. When she opened the door, there stood our dad. He came in and we ran over to greet him. We asked him where our mother was, and he said, “She’s at home. She don’t know I’m here.” He said, “Get ready, and we’ll go surprise her.” He told my grandmother to get ready, and we would all go to his house for a few days. She quickly gathered everything she thought we would need, and we were ready to go. We all crammed into his black, 1953 Dodge truck, and we were on our way.

When we arrived, my sister and I got out as quickly as we could and ran inside to see our mother and our little sister. Our mom was happy to see us and was glad to hear we were staying a few days. We asked her if she was surprised, and she said yes, and that it was a great surprise.

My dad and uncle went hunting, and we spent some time with our little sister, while our mom and grandmother spent some time together, cooking and talking. Later that evening, after dark, the hunters returned with a dead raccoon. They skinned it and made some sausages. I remember seeing my uncle wearing a Coonskin Cap that night. He probably had it already, but for years, I thought he made the cap that night from that raccoon. That would have been pretty nasty, I’m sure.

In my parent’s house, breakfast always consisted of mackerels, boiled in a bit of water, and biscuits to sop up the soup. It was pretty good. Then there was the “Thickened Gravy” made with chicken-flavored bullion cubes. It was always good, too. Mom and dad would take turns making the Chocolate Gravy, but, no matter which one made it, it was always delicious.

For lunch that day, we got to try the sausages. They tasted pretty good, but I don’t recommend it, since raccoons are scavengers. They’ll eat anything.

My mom always made T-Cakes when we would visit. She would mix it all up, and get it ready to make into cakes, then she would give us a little to eat before she cooked them. It was pretty good, but nothing compared to how good they were after twenty minutes in the oven at three hundred and fifty degrees. She was a pretty good cook, and she made the best iced-tea in the world.

That night, a torrential downpour came. It rained for the longest time. The roof was covered with tin, and we could hear every drop that fell on it. I remember Daddy coming in, soaking wet. As he took off his coat, he said there were small fish falling from the sky. I had no reason to disbelieve him at the time, but when I was older and got to know him better, I thought he might have been joking, when I would think about that night. I never thought to ask him if it really happened, but I do know there have been recorded reports of “Raining Fish” as far back as the 1600s, so I guess it’s possible.

Well, soon the time came to go back home. We were sad we had to leave, but our home was with our grandmother. She was a pretty awesome cook herself. We went back home to our quaint, little house, and resumed life as usual.

I’ve always been thankful for those few days, and for all the other times we got to spend with our parents. Those memories will always be dear to my heart, but I’m so grateful to my grandmother for raising us and taking such good care of us. Our mom and dad were not yet Christians at the time, but our grandmother was. I’m so thankful for the values she taught us, and for introducing us to Jesus. I’m looking forward to the day when Jesus comes and gathers the dead and the living believers, and we can all be together as a family once again. Until then I have my memories.

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© 2016 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
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OUR 34 YEAR OLD MIRACLE

A little more than 34 years ago, my wife informed me that she was having strange pains. I was concerned of course, but I didn’t think it was too serious. After all, she was pregnant, and discomfort comes with the territory. Right? Right. It couldn’t be labor pains because she was barely seven months along.

As day turned to night, the pain got worse, so we headed to the hospital, over fifty miles away. When we arrived, we found out it was labor pains, after all. The doctor said it was way too early, and the baby was way too small. He wasn’t due for almost three whole months, so they had to try to stop the labor.

They gave my wife medication for hours, and then hours turned into days. After a few days, the doctor decided he couldn’t stop the labor with the medication. To try any longer could harm the baby if it hadn’t already. He was going to come out.

We knew he was a boy and had already named him Zakary; with that weird spelling. It doesn’t seem that weird to me at all, though. It’s a better way to spell the name than ZACHARY, which I’ve never really liked at all. I guess that’s why I wanted to spell it differently. His mother wanted to name him after Zach from the TV show we loved called Saved By The Bell. She said we could name him Zakary, and call him Zak, which she never did. I got the spelling for the name from a baseball card I had of Zakary Taylor.

For months, we had been anticipating his arrival, and we were so ready to hold him in our arms, but now we were worried; really worried. It’s too early. He’s too small. He may not survive, and if he does, he may have lots of problems.

Wanting to prepare us for the worst, the doctor said, “his lungs are not developed yet. We need to give him a few rounds of steroids to help them develop. Even then, there’s no guarantee. He’ll have to stay in the hospital for a good while. He only weighs about three pounds.”

Frightening news, but we were praying, and begging God to let our son be alright. We knew God could make everything okay. He had so many times before. But, there had also been times I had prayed when things hadn’t gone well, so I was still worried.

After a few more days, and some more steroids, the doctor said he couldn’t hold back the labor any longer. We would just have to deal with whatever problems the baby would have as a result of being premature. So the next step was to go ahead and let him come out, and start working on him to ensure his survival. So, they broke the water, and we waited.

Not long into our wait, the nurses ran into the room and started checking the machines. The machines were working properly. The baby’s heart had stopped. It started back, but his heart rate kept dropping back down. After his heart stopped a second time, they rushed us down to the operating room and began a C-section to get him out as soon as possible. In no time, the doctor had him out and held him up. He was alive and breathing on his own, and he soon let everyone in the room know for sure that his lungs were well-developed. We were so happy to hear him crying.

What a miracle! The premature baby with undeveloped lungs, which the doctor said only weighed three pounds, turned out to have great lungs, and weighed over seven pounds. Praise the Lord! Thank you, Jesus.

As I held my firstborn son in my arms, I was filled with joy and awe. God had given me my heart’s desire; a son. The Bible tells us that children are a blessing from the Lord (Psalm 127:3-5). That day, that blessing was bestowed on me, and I thanked God for giving me a son.

Today, we're celebrating Zakk’s 34th birthday. That’s over a quarter of a century. It sounds like a long time, but in some ways, it seems like only yesterday when I first looked into the eyes of that beautiful blessing from God. He’s grown into a fine young man, and I’m so proud of him. He reminds me so much of me when I was his age. I love him so much, and I thank God for him, and for the awesome miracle he performed for us 34 years ago.

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© 2015 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
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THE KING OF THE HILL LOST HIS THRONE

No matter how good we are at parenting, or how well we train our children, they still disobey sometimes and I was no different when I was young. My grandmother raised me from the time I was three and she was like a mother to me. I remember several times when I didn’t listen to her and bad things happened, but I remember one in particular where I could have died.

I was twelve years old and we had just moved next door to my Mom and Dad. We were in a valley and there were hills all around. My cousins had built some wooden contraptions they called coasters, which were like go-carts without motors. They would pull them up the steep gravel road and ride them back down. They let me ride a couple of times and I was hooked. I had to build one for myself.

When my Grandmother found out we were playing in the road, she said it was too dangerous. We could get hit by a car. So, I found a hill in the woods and made a road there. It was awesome. Everybody LOVED it. It was summer and we were out of school. We spent hours riding down that hill every day. Pulling our coasters up was not an easy job but, the ride down was well worth whatever hardship it took to get back to the top of the hill.

I guess a couple of weeks went by, and I mean fun weeks. It was the most fun I had seen in years. Then one day, out of the blue, one of my cousins had a wreck on his coaster and hurt his ankle really bad. I don’t remember if it broke it or sprained it or what, but he couldn’t walk. Well, my Grandmother, being the good parent she was, banned us from the hill in the woods because now, that was too dangerous.

I knew she was only looking out for us because she didn’t want us to get hurt. I knew the Bible said Children should obey their parents, but I thought to myself, “She’s worried about nothing, I won’t get hurt. I know what my cousin did wrong. I won’t make the same mistake he did.” I tried to convince her, but she put her foot down and gave her final, No.

That didn’t stop me from going back though. It took me a couple of days to get my courage up, but finally, I headed out. I got my coaster and pulled it behind our house and up to where my Mom and Dad’s house would be between me and my Grandmother, so she wouldn’t be able to see me. Then, I cut across a field of honeysuckles and sage grass.

My grandmother couldn’t see me, but God could. I’m so glad he did. I stopped and looked back just in time to see a black, tornado-shaped mass coming up out of the ground. It was a swarm of bumblebees. I was highly allergic to bee stings at the time. One hornet had stung me a few years earlier and caused me a lot of trouble, so all I could think to do was run, and that’s what I did.

As I ran back toward home screaming, I remember getting stung on top of my head first. Then, just as I jumped a ditch, I got stung on my butt. Just when I thought I might get away, they were all over me. I saw my mom and started yelling at her, “They got me, they got me!” She told me to take off my clothes and she sprayed me with the water hose until the bees decided to leave me alone.

When it was all over and I was standing there in my underwear, soaking wet, I had only been stung seven times, but knowing I was allergic, they loaded me up and took me to the emergency room. I don’t remember much about being there, but I know it could have turned out worse than it did. I know I saw a lot more than seven bees come out of that nest, but God was with me and I didn’t die that time.

I wish I could say I never disobeyed again, but that would be a lie. I share more stories about other times I disobeyed in my book series, "THE JOURNEY TO HEAVEN, and INSPIRATION FOR THE JOURNEY. (Link Below) 

Looking back at all the times I didn’t listen and got hurt, or got into some other kind of trouble, I realize just how important it is to obey God. At times we may not understand why he doesn’t want us to do certain things, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore his warnings. We shouldn’t look at God’s commandments as a list of DON’Ts, but as warnings to protect us from harm. God loves us and he wants what’s best for us so we can be safe and happy. We will always go wrong when we do what He tells us not to.

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My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com

© 2014 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

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