Encouraging those who need it
As a child growing up there was always a lot of us kids still home so back in the late 1960s and early 1970s we would work as a family at times to supply for our home. This involved various task that we were all expected to help in. The Garden was one of them to put up food for the winter, cutting wood was one, and one of the others was going out into the fields and picking up corn that was missed by the pickers.
Technologies have gotten so advanced since those days so I don’t know if anyone even does this anymore. This was called gleaning the fields — at least this is what dad told us we were doing. We would go into the fields after the farmers had picked the field and we would start at the front and work our way to the back. We would pick through the corn stalks and would find the full ears of corn then load them up in a wagon and the farmer would take them and sell the corn and we got a percentage of what he got for the corn.
This was a lot of work and as long as you were big enough to break an ear of corn from the stalk you were picking corn. The entire family would go into the field and the little ones we would watch them right in the field one of the younger kids would be responsible for watching them that way the rest of us could work in the fields.
Now by today standards you might think this was being cruel to us kids making us get out and pick fields in the hot sun but we had plenty of water and sandwiches with us and we made a game out of it. I can remember me and my brother Sherman and sister Charlotte starting at the end of the row and making a game out of it we would walk between two rows and see who could pick up the most but also who could get to the end of the field first. Now the rule was that even if there was an ear of corn laying in the other person’s row that you could see, you were not allowed to pick it up and put it in your pile. So as we would get to the ends of our rows and when you looked back you would see piles all down the row of corn we picked up at the end we would line back up and start new rows the other way.
We spent all day on the weekends and after school, we would spend hours working in the fields. But the work wasn’t over once we got the piles of corn made then we would go back through and have to pick them up and put them in the wagon. And it was amazing how much corn was actually missed by the corn picker. We did our best not to miss any ears of corn and to get them all in the wagon.
Boot camp
I was reminded of this game we play as a child of not missing any ears of corn another time. When I went into Boot Camp at Paris Island South Caroline during training we were taught not to leave anyone behind. That every one that was with us was important and to do our best to make sure that we got everyone back.
I’m reminded of this again later in life when I became a Christian. That everyone was important to God. As a pastor, it’s my duty and calling to preach the word and to reach out to as many as I can to help them find God. And when I look at the world today I try to lift others up by the Word of God I preach but also by trying to be an encouragement to everyone who read these blogs.
My early years as a Christian
When I first got saved I started writing a few songs and I remember the very first one I wrote. I was talking to Pam and nervous cause I figure that maybe I was being silly thinking that someone like me who had not been saved for only a few months would get up and sing in the church. Well, our son Jeremiah was there and about 9 years old and he chimed in “Dadm if God did not want you to share the song, do you think he would have given it to you?” Wise words from a child, huh?
So we went to church that day and I figured I could share it with the Sunday school class and that would be that. But that was not the case Peggy: Holbrook thought that during the service I should share the song and she spoke up to let the church know I wrote a song. I was so nervous that I ask for the musicians to not play cause I was not used to singing in public. I got through the singing the song and started to make a beeline back to my seat and Peggy spoke back up and said now try it with music. I could have fallen over but I tried it and got through it. But news travels fast in the church community we went to Ada to visit a little church there that Sunday night and sure enough someone spoke up and said we heard you wrote a song and they asked me to get back up and sing my song again.
By the way, the very first song I wrote was I Gave My Heart to the Lord.
But this was to encourage me to step out and help me to stand for the Lord this is what the church needs today men and women of God to speak words to each other word of encouragement and to be an inspiration so that we can stand when all else fails. Just like those ears of corn so many years ago that we did not leave in the field there are those out there that need to be picked up and to let them know that God is there just to help them.
Isaiah 24:13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.
Let’s all be an encouragement to others, for to God all lives matter and they should matter to us also. Gods grace, His mercy, and His love will, can keep us going, let’s pass it on to others so they can make it to.
May God Bless you and help you to help others.