Hi Friends:
I am so thankful to get back to writing, and to this series. I looked at how I began the last installment in this series, posted a while ago, and this is how it started:
“It is good to be back to writing. With job, business, and other writing responsibilities, it’s funny how “your first love” gets pushed “to the back.” Plus, the opportunity to travel has also figured into the time equation. We’re back to our series, in which, yes, we are thankful for what our Heavenly future holds, but, let’s not forget all of the benefits … all of the blessings … There are just so many blessings we have, in our life right now, which, often, we take for granted … “
When this series goes to print form, I am sure that I will use sub-titles for each chapter.
I had originally planned to write this as a separate, “stand-alone” post, but, I felt led to include it as a much-appreciated chapter in the series … At first, I was going to include this in our “Travel” series, but the exact same thing which prompted me to include it as part of “Travel” happened again … locally …
So, here goes: “Double Debit Indebtedness:”
I am so thankful that I was “raised right.” While this may mean different things for different people, what I mean is that I am so glad … and, so proud … and, so thankful … to have been raised “right.”
In a Christian home.
Taught the difference between right and wrong.
By honest parents.
Who taught me to be honest.
Hard working parents.
Who taught me to work hard.
My first job was at 14.
I haven’t stopped working.
Ever.
I was taught to be grateful for everything I had.
Somehow … I just knew that, regardless of how “poor” we may have been, there were so many others who were so much worse off.
I’ve learned that the best advantage I had, growing up, were my parents, and what they taught me.
What they showed me-by how they lived their lives.
I strayed … they didn’t.
Ever.
Again:
I strayed.
They didn’t.
Ever.
They taught me that the “important” things I wanted to have … in order to have them … I must work for them.
Period.
Period.
They were a moral foundation which I could build my life upon. Because … they built their life upon the same foundation.
I strayed.
They didn’t.
Ever.
They were honest. They were hard-working. They were respectful.
They were great.
The best kind of great.
The kind of great which influenced all who knew them.
Examples of how they lived their lives would fill many pages.
What drove me to write this installment of the series was just one example I was taught:
Honesty.
Being honest.
I can honestly say that I really don’t know how to not be honest. I don’t. I don’t know how to be dishonest. I never saw it in them, and I never learned how to be anything but honest.
Oh yeah … I am human, and there are certain traits which are “built into” all humans.
Like telling a lie.
You don’t have to teach a child how to lie:
“Who broke the lamp?”
The ability to lie is part of our sinful nature which you don’t have to teach. We are all born with it.
However … the ability to be honest … that is something which has to be taught.
We aren’t born to be honest. That would go against our sinful nature. We must learn to be honest.
Honest!
If we don’t “learn” to be honest …
We won’t be.
Yes, we can learn to lie. I won’t “lie” about that.
But, in order to “learn” to lie … if we have to learn to lie … that means it would have to go against what we have been taught. We’d have to “learn.”
I think back to what I wrote about what I’ve written about my Dad. How honest he was, and, still is. He is the only person I’ve ever known who, if he found money in the change slot of a pay-telephone or vending machine … he would put it back.
I’ve seen this.
He would, literally, put the change back into the machine.
It looks like it may be possible to have a “Part-2” as a part of a “part of” a series.
I am just so thankful that I had parents who taught me right from wrong.
Who were honest.
It is the “honesty” part which has driven me to include this installment as part of the series.
I am so thankful that I had parents who “raised me right.”
As a teacher in Public Schools … well … let’s just say … well … you know what I am saying.
I can honest say that I have heard the old saying about “the apple not falling far from the tree” many times in my time in the Public Schools. However, I can honestly say that I have never, ever heard that saying used in a positive way.
Never.
Ever.
This series is about being thankful for what we already have.
I realize there are so many, which Jesus has saved out of disastrous circumstances and upbringings. That there are many who have “turned away” from a Godly upbringing. I realize this. Yet, how often have those of us who were blessed to have been “raised right” thanked God for their upbringing? I mean, being thankful every day. When, every day, as you list what you are thankful for, that you praise God for the way you were raised?
I must admit, that, while I make a point, every day, to thank God for things I don’t want to take for granted, like electricity and running water (and always add “running hot water”), but I have failed to be thankful for the first real blessing of my life:
To be raised in a Christian home.
To have been taught the difference between right and wrong.
To have been taught to be honest.
What a blessing, “freely bestowed,” to have been “raised right.”
To know that, regardless of how I may have strayed …
They never did.
Ever.
Blessings to you, and your family,
Richard. Vincent. Rose.
Here’s a direct link to the entire series so far:
Wealth Stored for the Righteous
pastorappreciationblog.com 