NO CHICKEN FOR ME PLEASE

When I was around nine or ten years old, I lived in the small town of Theo, Mississippi with my grandmother, and two of my younger sisters. The town was only a few square miles in size, so we could walk to the store, or walk to visit our aunt or any of the neighbors my grandmother decided to visit. We didn’t have a car, but our aunt did, so if we needed to go outside our little community, she would take us.

One day, we walked to the store, and on our way back home, we stopped to visit one of the neighbors who was friends with my grandmother. They had known each other for many years.

She was cooking the next meal for her family so she invited us inside to visit while she cooked.

She asked my grandmother if we would like to stay, and eat with them. My grandmother thanked her for the invitation and accepted it. I was thinking, sure, okay, I’m a little hungry. I could eat something. She said, “We’re having chicken. Shake ‘n Bake chicken.” She had my attention because I loved chicken.

We were good kids, at least in other people’s homes. We were taught to be quiet and not interrupt while grownups were talking, so we sat still and were quiet, for the most part, as the adults talked, and laughed.

Then she started to prepare the chicken to cook. Back then, I don’t remember ever seeing chicken pre-cut, so the chicken was whole, and you had to cut it up yourself before cooking, so that’s what she did first. Then she washed the pieces of chicken and put them in a bowl.

Then, she put the Shake ‘n Bake mix in the bag and dropped a few pieces of chicken into the mix. Then, she proceeded to put the bag to her mouth and blow into it like a balloon filling it with air from her mouth. Then she started shaking it to coat the chicken with the breading.

“Oh, God! Help me, Jesus! Please get me out of here” That’s kind of what I was screaming in my mind. There was no way I was going to eat that chicken after what I just saw. I couldn’t tell them I didn’t want to eat it because I thought what she did was nasty, but I couldn’t even imagine eating it. So I told my grandmother I wanted to go home. I insisted and persisted. I told her I didn’t feel good, and I really didn’t after what I had just witnessed. I begged her, “Please, let’s go home. Please.” I begged, and pled with her until she finally gave in, and we went home.

In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus told a parable about a Persistent Widow. In verse 1, he tells us the meaning of the parable is that we should always pray and not give up until we get an answer.

1 Thessalonians 5:17, says to “pray without stopping.” We need to be in a constant state of prayer. We need to keep our connection with God open at all times, not only when we need something or want something. He’s always there, so we can talk to him all day long just like we would with any other friend.

We may not always get the answer we want, and the answer may not come immediately, but when we have some specific need, we should keep asking until he answers us.

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CATS, RATS, SNAKES, AND BOBCATS

When I was young, my aunt had a well in her backyard. It was the kind you have to lower a bucket down into and draw up the water. She built a shed over it connecting it to the house, then she closed it in with tin siding. She stored a few things in there like firewood, gardening tools, and miscellaneous things she didn’t want in the house. She left the ground for the floor and eventually, the grass all died and it was a dirt floor.

One day, I noticed several large holes in the ground behind the kitchen. They were tunnels leading under the house. There were big piles of dirt in front of them where something big had been digging. I asked my aunt what it was and she said it was Gopher Rat holes. Then, my uncle said the rats were so big that he had to use a stick of firewood to kill them.

My aunt had several cats and dogs over the years with weird names. She had a cat named Blackie, and one named Brownie, because of their color. She had a cat named Tom because he was a Tomcat, and a dog named Snowball because he was white and fluffy.

There was a rectangular hole in the floor under the kitchen sink where the big drain pipe ran under the floor. It was big enough for the cats to climb through, so my aunt put a piece of wood there like a ramp to make it easier for the cats to come in and go out of the house. Her cats were not the only thing that could come through the hole, and they weren’t the only things that did.

One day, we were at her house and she went into the kitchen for something. All of a sudden, we heard an awful commotion and she started yelling. Of course, we all ran to see what was going on. There on the floor by the stove and the back door was a big, long, black snake and it was squirming all over the floor trying to get away from the broom she was hitting it with. For some reason, I don’t remember if she killed it or if it got away, probably because we ran out of there.

I also found a baby mouse there one time by that stove behind the door. It didn’t have any hair and it was so cute, but knowing what they grow up to become, my grandmother wouldn’t let me keep it. She told me to put it back where I got it because the mother was probably looking for it.

My aunt told us about another time she went into the kitchen and found an uninvited guest. She said she got up one morning and went to make coffee and found a bobcat sitting there eating her cat’s food. Of course, he ran back under the sink and escaped through the hole her cats went in and out of. She said he came in several times. I wanted her to catch it so I could have it as a pet, but she said, “That thing’s wild. It’ll tear you all to pieces.” She said she prepared some hot water to dash on the bobcat one morning, so he would stop coming in and eating her cat’s food, and after she did that, it never came back again. I thought that was mean of her, but I think it can be a good spiritual lesson.

Sometimes sin sneaks into our lives. But, we don’t always recognize it as sin because we've let our guard down. Sin is often disguised as something other than what it truly is. Sometimes, it keeps coming back again and again. Maybe we need to dash some hot water on it and get it out of our lives for good.

The Bible says that God is able to keep us from sinning (Jude 1:24). We need that close, personal relationship with Jesus, and the Holy Spirit living in our minds to lead, and guide us. Staying in constant contact with God is a very important part of that relationship (1 Thessalonians 5:17). That includes listening as well as talking. It’s a relationship between created human beings and our loving Creator. What a beautiful relationship.

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FIRECRACKERS, CIGARETTES, AND GOD

When I was a kid, my grandmother put an empty milk jug in the fork of a small tree in front of our house, to keep birds away, if I remember correctly. I loved firecrackers and she would buy me some once in a while. I was going to light one and drop it into the jug to see if anything close to what I was imagining would happen. So, I lit the firecracker with a match, then started to drop it into the jug, but before I could let it go, it exploded, making my ears ring, and making my fingers black, and throbbing with pain. I had a ringing in my right ear for the rest of the day. Lesson learned.

I was a very impressionable child. I had so many ideas, but such low self-esteem. I didn’t like who I was, so I wanted to be like others. When my sister got glasses, I wanted glasses.

I also wanted a cast on my arm. Maybe because our preacher’s son had one. It was a short one that only went about halfway up his forearm. I thought it was cool, so maybe that’s why I wanted one. Like I told one of my friends when I was telling this story to them, I was the dumbest kid that I have ever known in my entire life, and you’ll probably agree with me when I tell you this next thing. I wanted a cast on my arm so bad that I tried to break my own arm. It embarrasses me right now just telling you this, but it’s important.

Remember that small tree with the fork in our front yard? Well, I put my arm in the fork and tried bending it back in order to break it. See what I mean? I was a dumb kid. Thankfully, I chickened out and gave up. To this day, I’ve never had a broken bone, unless you count my fractured skull when I was in elementary school.

I really liked the preacher’s son and looked up to him. I thought he was so cool. He must have really been, because all the other kids at church thought he was, too. He dipped, so I wanted to dip. My grandmother bought me a can of Skoal and gave it to me. I tried to taste it a few times, but it smelled awful. When I finally taste it, it was awful, so I just walked around with it in my back pocket for a few weeks, then I gave up the idea. I tasted chewing tobacco by sticking it to my tongue, and it was not good at all, so I didn’t try anything like that again.

My aunts and uncles smoked cigarettes. My mother smoked Prince Albert tobacco that had to be rolled up in papers. She rolled three for me, put them in a can half full of tobacco, and gave me some papers and some matches. I walked around with those for a few days and never even let one. Eventually, I gave that idea up as well.

As a kid, I did and wanted to do some things that were not healthy for me, but there were several things I wanted to do that were good. I wanted to be a firefighter, a police officer, and a preacher, among many other things. I guess I wasn’t completely full of bad ideas.

As I look back on those days, I can see how God worked to guide me in the right direction, although I left the path several times in pursuit of things that were not good for me. I’m thankful for those experiences because they help me now to kind of understand how other people can make bad decisions in life.

I thank God for the good and wise people that he put in my life when I was growing up. I’m so thankful for my grandmother teaching me about Jesus and helping me to learn to love his holy word, the Bible. When I look back to my childhood, I see how much my thoughts and ideas have improved, and that gives me hope for the future. With God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).

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CHILDREN ARE LIKE ARROWS

I’ve had many scrapes, cuts, and bruises over the years, and they all hurt. Many of them left scars, so it’s not hard to remember them. There were a few incidents that were kind of related, at least to a certain part of my body; A very sensitive part that causes severe pain when damaged. I’ve been hurt there many times over the years, but I’m only going to tell you about three of them today. I’ll say this, and I sincerely mean it; As many times as I’ve been hurt there, I’m surprised I was able to have children.

When I was about 12 years old, we lived directly behind one of the neighborhood stores in the small town of Theo, Mississippi. The store owner’s son was one of my friends. Sometimes he would get off the bus at the store, and stay there with his dad until closing. Many times he would come and stay at my house until just before his dad got ready to lock up. One of those times, as he was leaving, it was just before dark. I was outside talking with him as he walked backward toward the store. For some reason, he decided to throw a rock in my direction. We had been playing with the basketball, and I was about to take it into the house with me. As he threw another rock, I ran to where it was headed and let it bounce off the ball. He threw a few more a bit higher, and I intercepted each of them with the ball to see how far I could bounce them.

Then it happened. I missed the rock, but the rock didn’t miss me. It hit me right in the midsection. I dropped the ball and hobbled into the house crying so hard I could barely see. I crawled onto my grandmother’s bed and curled up in agony. I was in a lot of pain. I lay there for what seemed like forever, then I guess I finally went to sleep. When I woke up, I was a little better, but I was still hurting the next day. For a long time after that, I would have sporadic pains there that would remind me of that day. Needless to say, I never tried that again.

A few years earlier, a girl at school kicked me there for no reason. I guess she had a reason but it was nothing I did. Our teacher saw what happened and asked her why she would do that. She said she meant to kick me on the thigh, but she never said why she wanted to kick me in the first place. The teacher made her apologize, but that didn’t stop the pain.

When I was 23, I was working at a pallet factory. I was running the notcher, which is a machine that puts the holes in the 2x4s for the forklift tines or a pallet jack to slide in and lift the pallet from the side. The process involved placing three 2x4s in the machine, pushing them back into position against the fence, flipping a switch to bring the top part down to clamp the wood, and holding it in the machine while the notching head came down with a million teeth spinning at a very high speed. The operator controls how fast the head moves downward, so the faster you bring the head down, the more 2x4s you can notch, and the more 2x4s you notch, the faster you can finish the job, so I was going as fast as possible.

Then, the cutter head hit a knot and shattered all three 2x4s. the end of one of them flew out and hit me there very hard. It hurt very, very bad, and made a bruise there, and on the inside of my thigh that took more than a week to go away, and there was severe swelling in my privates.

When I was young, my grandmother and my aunt told me that I may not be able to have children if I kept damaging myself there, and I believed them, but God took care of me, and I now have three wonderful children and three grandchildren. I love them all very, much. I’m truly blessed.

In many places in the Bible, we are told that children are a blessing. Psalm 127 says that children are a heritage of the Lord and a reward. They’re like arrows in the hand of a mighty man, and a man who has his quiver full of them is happy.

People don’t always see children as a blessing though. I know I didn’t always. That’s because humans are selfish. Too many children are being neglected and mistreated in our world today. It’s sad that so many people see children as an inconvenience. So much so that they will kill them before they are born and many want to be able to lawfully kill them even after they are born. God has always condemned the nations that killed children and he’s not going to stand by and let our nation keep killing babies without judgment.

I pray that the people of our world will begin to see life as something to be cherished, protected, and preserved instead of something meaningless and worthless. We need to love and protect children and see them as God does. After all, children are the future of our world.

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IF I COULD GO BACK IN TIME

Have you ever heard someone say, “I wish I knew then what I know now,” or, “I wish I could go back and live my life over, knowing what I know now?” Maybe you’ve even said something like that yourself. I know I have. I’ve always had a very active imagination, so I’ve imagined countless scenarios about going back in time as I was growing up.

I’ve always loved science fiction. It offers endless possibilities for the mind to wonder. I especially love the concepts of space travel and time travel. Space travel is a little more within our grasp than time travel, but even it has limitations.

I do believe there are other inhabited planets in the billions of galaxies out there, but the chance of us ever reaching them is very small. Time travel is even more impossible, but I’ve found myself wishing I could go back in time on several occasions.

One of my favorite back in time imaginings always involved going back and doing something to make myself rich in the future. I’ve thought of buying some things in the past that I know are worth a lot of money now; Things like comic books, baseball cards, paintings, and other collectibles. I would bring them back with me if I could, but if I couldn’t, I would hide them somewhere that I knew would still be there when I got back, then I would cash in; 

I also thought about changing the past to make the present better, not just for me, but for all my family, and community, our state, and even our whole world. If I could go back in time I would change so much. There are many, many things I would do, but, there are more things that I would NOT do than things I would. There are so many scenarios with the theory of time travel, and so many variables depending on who writes the story, but I would love to go back as I am now and see just what I could do, and what I could change. Maybe even find my younger self and give him some guidance to help him become the man I always wanted to be someday.

After many years of entertaining the idea, I’ve mellowed a bit, and grown some intellectually, and spiritually, and I think if time travel was possible I would do things a bit differently than I had always daydreamed about. Of all my imaginings, I think I would like most to go back to when I was twelve years old and live my life over from there with all the knowledge I now have, including all my memories from the life I have already lived.

Before I tell you what I would do, let me first tell you what I would not do. I would not jump on the tree knot one more time after my grandmother told me to stop, and my leg would not get the skin peeled off the bone from my knee to my foot. I would not take my new basketball to school and it would not get stolen from me. I would say, No, when Arlan asked me to draw the hand with only a middle finger sticking up on his notebook.

I would not grab that tennis racket in math class and clown around behind Mr. Jobe’s desk knocking the light fixture down, and I would not get a paddling because of it. I would do my homework and never copy Lisa’s, and Debbie’s papers. The day I was being chased through the gym, I would not duck and run through the line of girls doing basketball drills. That way, I would not end up unconscious on the floor with a concussion because I ran into the wall and fell and hit my head.

I would not pick up that rat I found in the bathtub one day after church, and I would not get bitten and have to go to the hospital for a tetanus shot. I would not jump off the top of our house and hurt myself. I would not get on that horse at Jamie’s house, so the horse would not run away with me and scare me almost to death. I would not quit school after I turn 16. I would never touch a drop of alcohol, and I would never, ever try drugs even one time.

There are many bad choices I made back then that I would never make if I had the opportunity to choose again with the knowledge I now have. I could go on for pages, talking about the things I would not do, but I won’t. Let me tell you a few of the things I WOULD do if I could go back in time and live my life over.

The first thing I would do, without hesitation, is to fall down on my knees, and ask Jesus to save me, and guide me from that moment on, for the rest of my life. I wasted so many years doing my own thing, my own way and I regret that. The second thing I would do is hug my grandmother, and tell her how much I love her, and from that point on, I would cherish everything she had to say, and I would obey her in whatever she told me, and I would treat her with the respect she truly deserved.

Then I would hug my three sisters and let them know how much I love and respect them, and that I will always love them, no matter what, and that I will always be there to protect them. I would do my very best to be a better example for them than I was. I would go tell my mom and dad that I love and respect them, and I forgive them for everything I was angry at them about. I would let them know I understand why things had to be the way they were. I would tell my Aunt Lee that I love her and I appreciate all she has done to help our grandmother take care of us. Those are the things I would do first.

I would also study more, and do my homework every night. I would read and study the Bible every day. I would spend more time praying and worshiping God and less time with my celebrity idols. I would spend more time helping others and less time satisfying my own selfish desires. I would spend more time telling others what Jesus has done for me, and how much he loves them. I would be a different young man than I was, and I would grow into a young adult that God could use. These are the things I would change if I could go back in time.

The reality of the matter is, I can’t go back in time. I can’t change a single thing that I ever did. “The Past Is The Past,” and “What’s Done Is Done.” The amazing thing is that God forgave me for all those bad things I did and he gave me a clean slate. Yes, I messed it up too, but thankfully, his mercy is new every morning. Each of us has a new opportunity each day to start over and live a better life from that point on. Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive. Search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you“ (Matthew 7:7). John said, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us for our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Remember this if you ever find yourself wishing you could go back and change your past.

Our main focus should not be on the past, but on the future and the glorious gift of eternal life with our creator and savior. That shouldn’t be the reason we serve him, though. We “must be born again” in order to receive that eternal life (John 3:7). When we’re truly born again, we will serve and obey him because we love him. He loves us so much that he died for us, and if we love him, we’ll live for him.

This life will end someday, and I truly believe it won’t be long now. Life is too short to waste, and eternity with Jesus is too precious to miss out on. So please, give your life to him right now. Look to the future, and leave the past in the past.

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MY OTHER LITTLE SISTER

I was about six years old and my sister was sixteen months younger than me. One day we went to the little country store that had recently opened up in front of our house. The owner’s name was Amos. My grandmother had known him since he was a little boy. Around mid-day, there were always several men sitting around inside eating lunch.

I don’t remember exactly what it was, but my sister, Loretta, wanted to get something and my grandmother told her no. So she fell down on the floor and threw a tantrum. She was crying, and kicking, and screaming. All of a sudden, from out of nowhere, our grandmother grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to her feet, and gave her a good spanking right there in front of the store owner and all those men. Let me tell you, she never ever acted like that again.

Another time, though, we had gone to that same store and returned home. That’s when our grandmother noticed that Loretta had a candy bar. She asked her, “Where did you get that candy bar?” She said, “From the store.” Our grandmother told her she had to take it back and tell Amos that she had stolen it. She didn’t want to do that so our grandmother went outside and got a small branch from a tree and stripped the leaves off. We called that a switch back then.

She gave her a switching and we all headed back to the store. We went inside and walked up to the counter. Loretta laid the candy bar on the counter and said, “I stole this.” Amos said, “Oh, it’s alright. You can have it.” My grandmother quickly spoke up and said, “No it’s not alright. I ain’t gonna have them stealing.” We left and went back home. I never knew of her ever stealing anything again.

I believe that one of the reasons there are so many disrespectful, lying, thieving people out there today is because they were not disciplined as children. There’s nothing wrong with disciplining your child in a loving manner. I don’t think you should ever discipline them while you’re angry, though. You should pray and ask for God’s help and guidance before doing anything. I wish I had done that when I was raising my three.

If we would get back to raising our children God’s way, our world would be a better place. We need to make God number one in our lives and follow his word. Here are a few versed from the Holy Bible about disciplining children.

Proverbs 22:6 – Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 29:17 – Correct your son, and he will give you rest. Yes, he will give delight to your soul.

Proverbs 29:15 – The rod and correction give wisdom: but a child left to himself brings his mother to shame.

Proverbs 22:15 – Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him.

Proverbs 23:13-14 – Do not withhold correction from the child because if you hit him with the rod, he will not die. You will hit him with the rod and will deliver his soul from hell.

Proverbs 13:24 – He that spares the rod hates his son, but he that loves him disciplines him early.

Hebrews 12:11 – No discipline seems to be delightful at the time, but sorrowful, but afterward it brings the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.

God tells us to discipline our children and train them to do right. They need to understand there are consequences for all wrongdoing. That will help them learn to obey God and avoid the flames of hell fire which is the ultimate consequence of doing wrong. Consistent, loving, discipline works, and when they’re grown, your children will understand, and they'll be grateful that you cared enough to correct them, just like my sister is thankful for our grandmother’s discipline today.

Other stories about my sisters --- 

My Little Sister 

My Other Little Sister 

The Pond, The Fork, And The Mud Pies 

I Miss My Sister And My Friend

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PREPARE FOR WHAT'S COMING

Have you ever had anything happen to you that you were totally unprepared for? Have you ever seen or heard of something happening to someone else and thought it could happen to you. Unfortunately, many people see something happening to someone else and think it could never happen to them. Well, not me. My grandmother was always thinking about what could happen if you do this and what could happen if you do that and I guess she passed that on down to me. Some people call it worrying but I call it being prepared. I think it’s reckless and irresponsible to begin anything without considering the possible negative outcome. We should never just jump into anything without thinking it out first. We always need to be safety-minded.

Remember my little blue Geo Metro? Well, I have another tale to tell you about it. One day I was going to check all the fluids as I always did once a week. That’s the life of your vehicle. When I pulled the hood release, I felt the cable break and the hood did not unlatch. I finally got it open but it wouldn’t latch back. The safety latch was working but I didn’t trust that enough to drive down the road. I had heard of several people having wrecks from car hoods fly up while going down the road so I put a bungee cord on it to keep the wind from blowing up under the hood.

I thought about what I would do if the hood were to blow up and block my view while driving down the road. I actually pictured it in my mind and planned out a strategy in case it ever happened to me. My plan was to put my head out the window and calmly apply the brakes and slowly and safely get the car off the road without having a wreck.

Then one morning, I was on my way to work, minding my own business, when my windshield suddenly turned blue and shattered. There was no warning like I thought there would be. I didn’t even have time to think about it. It was just there. I immediately put my well-thought-out plan into action. I put my head out the window so I could see the road and began applying the breaks and soon I was safely off the road. Thank God I had thought about what COULD happen before it did. Thank God I was prepared. If not, who knows what might have happened?

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus and his disciples warn us to be prepared for him to return. If we are not prepared when he comes back, we will not see heaven. It’s very important to have a plan. Thankfully, God has a plan for us already. He sent his son to live a sinless life and then die in our place so we could live forever. Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be born again in order to get into heaven (John 3:1-7). This is something beyond scientific explanation. It’s supernatural. In this process, our sins are washed away, we become a new person with a clean slate, and the Holy Spirit comes to live in our minds and guides us in making the right decisions every day.

Jesus is coming back soon and we need to be prepared. If you can’t say without a doubt that you’re ready, then please talk to God right now and make sure you don’t miss out on heaven. The only alternative is hell, and I’m sure nobody wants that. So be prepared and I’ll see you there.

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THE POND, THE FORK, AND THE MUD PIES

I think was six years old, when we moved into our new house in Theo Mississippi. It was white with a shiny silver roof. It was in the same neighborhood where we had lived since I could remember. In the new house, my little sister and I each had our own bedroom. The living room in this house was bigger than in the house we had moved from, and we had a bathroom with a tub and water inside the house. We had hot water, too, so we no longer had to heat water to bathe in. We had moved up in the world. Our yard was about the same size as our old one but the layout was a bit different. We had more yard in the front but the side of the house was about the same distance away from the road that the front of our old house was, but it sat on a hill several feet higher than the road.

The house was much nicer, too. It had painted wood inside and nice, aluminum-framed, energy-efficient windows. It even had a storm house. There were several nice, big trees and one of them was a walnut tree. There were plum trees and persimmon trees and beautiful rose bushes all along the property next to the road. The landlord had a cornfield by the side of the driveway in front of the house and he told us we could get all the corn we wanted any time we wanted it. It was like a paradise.

We were excited about our new home, and so was our dog, Clete. I remember making mud pies there for the first time. Somebody gave us an Easy Bake Oven. It didn’t work, but we pretended it did. We made a grocery store and stocked it with empty containers that our grandmother saved for us when they were all used up. We had cereal boxes, oat boxes, milk cartons and jugs, butter bowls, and lots of empty cans. We would play store for hours.

One day, not long after we moved in, a good rain came. There was plenty of mud for some mud pies. I guess we got tired of that after a while. How many mud pies can a kid make anyway? We were just outside the bathroom window and the siding was made from sheets of something white with an orange peel texture. I just remember how pretty and white it was. I think I threw one of the mud pies and it stuck on the white wall. Then maybe my sister threw another one. The next thing I remember is both of us with our backs to the wall, bending over with our hands in the red clay mud, throwing it behind us between our legs, all over that pretty white wall.

When my grandmother saw what we had done she was more than a little upset. After the yelling and the lecture, she made us clean up the mess. We scrubbed as hard as we could for what seemed like forever but we just could not get it back to the pretty clean white that it was before. Our grandmother saw that we had done our best so she tried, but those stains never did come clean. They were still there six years later.

There was a pond on the other side of the small field behind the house but it was fenced in with barbed wire. We weren’t allowed to go there by ourselves, until several years later. I once got some water from there to take to school for science class. We looked at a drop of it under a microscope and saw a creature with a big head and huge horns. It looked like a bull with no legs. When I was older I went there by myself a couple of times but that was it. I never went back. It just wasn’t as exciting as I had imagined for all those years.

When we were older, I was annoying my sister and she got mad and threw some tea on me. I had a bad temper, and before I could think, I threw a fork at her and the points of the prongs stuck in the side of her head. I was sorry I did it when I realized how bad she could have been hurt. I could have even put her eye out.

Sometimes as I look back at my childhood, I remember some things that I’m not proud of. I’ve often wished that I could forget every bad thing that I’ve done and every bad thing that has ever happened in my life, but I realized that those bad experiences are part of what has made me who I am today. Testing and trials build character and how we react in any given situation tells us, as well as others, what kind of person we really are. We should learn from our mistakes and wrong choices. If nothing else, we should at least realize that we can’t make it on our own, and that prompts us to seek the help of our Creator.

So, when you look back at your past and remember things you wish you could forget, take a closer look at those things to see if you learned anything from them. If you didn’t, then examining them may help you to put everything in perspective and maybe you’ll be able to deal with your past a little bit better. Then, leave the past behind and hold on to the good memories and cherish each and every one of them. They are part of what made you who you are, too.

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MY LITTLE SISTER

I was nine years old and I was at my aunt’s house with my two sisters and our grandmother when our mother popped in for a visit. I’m sure I already knew she was pregnant but that day was the first time I remember knowing. She stayed for a while and then she had to go. As she was leaving, I remember my aunt saying something like, “She’ll have that baby before the next full moon,” and I remember her confirming that she had been right when we heard that we had a new baby sister. We didn’t get to see the little rug rat as often as we wanted to but Momma would bring her to see us as often as she could and we would go visit them when we could.

My most memorable moment with her was when she was about two years old. Our Aunt Lee took us and our grandma to visit them. After several hours of playing and having loads of fun with her, it was time to leave. She was dirty all over from playing in the dirt and her face was the worst. She was giving everybody hugs and kisses and she came to me. We hugged and even though her face was covered with dirt, I was about to kiss her on the cheek. Just as I puckered up and came close to her face, she turned her head and kissed me right on my lips with the wettest, snottiest mouth you could imagine. I loved her, but I was spitting out the car window all the way home. It’s funny now and we’ve had several laughs about it over the years, but it wasn’t funny at all then.

When she was three years old, we moved next door to them. Then, we got to play with her all day, every day. We had lots of fun, but sometimes I guess we forgot that she was smaller and a bit more fragile than we were and she would get hurt. I liked pushing her in toy cars and on her tricycle. One day I noticed the extra dirt left over from putting our septic tank in the ground. It reminded me of one of the ramps that Evel Knievel would use to jump his motorcycle over different things. I couldn’t resist. I was thinking, “She has three wheels, she’ll be fine.” So, I told her to hold her feet up off the peddles, as I had before when I pushed her fast. Then I pushed her faster than ever, and I let her go with an extra shove just a few feet from the dirt mound. “Yes!” She jumped and landed on all three wheels without falling over or falling off the tricycle, BUT, she kept rolling for a bit too long. I saw her start wobbling and before I could get to her, she hit the front steps and fell over on them, and split her lip open. Momma wasn’t happy about that at all, so I felt bad for more than one reason. If you know what I mean.

We’re all grown up now and have children of our own, but I still have good memories of our childhood together and all the crazy fun we’ve had over the years. When I was seventeen, I wrote a song about her. It may not be a masterpiece, but here are the words.

SISTER MARY
by Teddy Lynn 
1985

VERSE 1
Eyes like diamonds, a smile bright as the sun
A dirty face from having too much fun
Snotty nose and a snotty kiss
I’m afraid someday I’ll be missing this

CHORUS
Sister Mary, I love you with all of my heart
We have to spend way too much time apart
I guess that makes me really appreciate you
Sister Mary, I’ll always be there for you

VERSE 2
Smiling from ear to ear reaching out for me
Your eyes full of tears when I have to leave
A heart full of love as big as the sky
Handfuls of kisses, but the days fly by

CHORUS…

BRIDGE
It won’t be long until you’re grown
You’ll marry and you’ll be gone
Everything may change and be rearranged
But my love for you will remain

CHORUS

Sister Mary © copyright 2010 Teddy Lynn – BMI

As I said, it’s not a masterpiece, that’s just how I expressed my feelings before blogging and social media came along. Siblings can sometimes have strained relationships and can sometimes even hate each other, but some share a great bond. I’m thankful for my little sister and the good relationship we’ve always had. Since we’ve grown up, we don’t see each other as often as we used to, but I still love her as much as I did when we were kids. There’s nothing like family, and there’s nothing like good memories, so cherish both, while you still have them.

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

© 2018 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

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