Growing up I remember visiting a man in the hospital that I hardly knew. He always scared me a little. He looked sad, angry and very lost. He hardly ever said a word. He would stare at the TV in the hospital room or just stare away from us. Above his bed were pictures of him as a young man in his uniform, serving his country. From the pictures he still had his whole life in front of him to live. We would visit him for a little while and then we would need to leave. I remember as we would walk to the elevator Dad would always give us the talk of how important it was to stay away from alcohol. The effects it had on this man’s life was so obvious. He would warn us sternly that if that was the road we chose that would be where it led. I remember we would quietly listen and the trip home was always a little quiet as we thought over what we had seen and heard…..

At a young age he was offered just a drink. Not really a big deal at the time. It was a big deal. It would change his life forever.

I can remember some of my Mother’s stories. Growin up she learned some things the hard way by watching her Dad. She told me that when she went through hard times as a girl she would tell herself she would never live this way and she made a deal with herself she would have changes. She said she made a promise to herself that she would never marry a man who drank. She married a Pastor, my dad. She would lay in her bed at night and listen to a preacher talk about Jesus. She made it to church… sometimes by herself. She made a deal, she would never let her kids see from her, what she lived with.

My older Brother Kyle, they say, looks like Grandpa. (The picture here is my brother Kyle taking little Kyle on a walk) Kyle said that he and his wife made a vow to God that they would never take a sip of alcohol. Kyle is a youth pastor. He warns young people against alcohol often. He has a little boy, Little Kyle, he wants to be like Big Kyle.

Grandpa is gone now. We still visit his grave site on a hill just outside of the small town in Kentucky that he grew up in. Mom will put flowers on his grave and we will enjoy the peaceful setting. We will be quiet and think about him. Grandpa may never have known us and won’t ever know the influence he had on us but he had a powerful influence on his kids and now his grandchildren and great grandchildren. We often wish that he would have been open to Jesus. But God used his heart though it wasn’t open to Him. Sometimes the example we look at doesn’t always have to be good one… and for that we thank him and we love him.

Mom, I love you. Thank you for warning us against alcohol and telling us the truth. Thank you for making the decision as a young girl that you would have a different life no matter what. Thank you for looking to your perfect heavenly Father and letting Him lead you. Thank you for never allowing us to experience the hard things you went through because you knew Jesus was the answer. Thank you for being determined not to marry a man who drinks. Thanks for encouraging us to make vows against taking “just one drink”. I will encourage my kids to do the same.

Here is a sweet song that I love. Listen to it and if you can look it up on youtube and watch the original one. It won’t let me post it here. I almost made my mom cry when I sent it to her and she doesn’t cry.

(Please turn off the music at the bottom left side of this page)

5 comments

5 Comments

RSS feed | Trackback URI

Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>