"These words I am commanding you today, shall be on your
heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of
them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie
down and when you rise up, You shall bind them as a sign on our hand and they
shall be as frontals on your forehead, You shall write them on the doorposts of
your house and on your gates" (Deut. 6:6-9).
Hey Gang: As a child growing up in Altoona,
Pennsylvania, I was blessed to be in that time period before the so called
"Age of Enlightenment"
covered our earth with a darkness that seems to be rotting every area of our
lives. One of the things I vividly remember was a student in Fairview
Elementary School, was the opening of the school day.
It was the same every day for the six years I attended
that school. We began with the pledge of
allegiance to our country and the raising of the flag (which means we moved it
from one side of the teachers desk to the other each day). This was followed by
the reading of the Word and then a prayer. Every school day, five days a
week, nine months of the year.
In the first three year of my school experience I was
truly blessed to have a grandmother-type teacher by the name of Mrs.
Barnhart. She was like a "mama hen" that watchers her
chicks with a loving eye to make sure they were safely tucked away in the
nest. Each morning, after the pledge, Scripture, and prayer she would get
out "Peanuts the Elephant", a kind of the mascot of the class, and
read a story. While reading the story, she would walk up one aisle and down the
other until she had made physical contract with every child.
Mrs. Barnhart was far more than a mere teacher, she was a
"seed planter" of God's love. There was no big deal made of
this planting of the Word into the hearts of all the children who were
privileged to learn under her guidance, she just did it. Why, I believe? Because
it was her way of following the Lord's command to "Go into all the world and share the Good News that Jesus Christ is the
"Way, Truth and Life".
I wonder how many of the little ones, who passed under her
watchful eyes, learned eternal lesson about God's love and respect for their
country and love for the flag. She certainly was no preacher, not even a
teacher of the Word, but she was, as James said we should all be, "…a Doer of the word". I
wonder how many noses she wiped or boots that she helped put on, or how many
mittens she had to search for in her thirty plus years of sharing her purpose
in life - sharing of God's love.
Soooo, The question, are we losing our young
people? I’d like to think that maybe the seeds Mrs. Barnhart
planted in my heart, in those first three years of my school life, later
surfaced in the founding of the Village. I pray that my life has been one
of ‘seed planting’. So get your hoe and spade and get about being a
Johnny Appleseed with God's fabulous Word!
Blessings,
Gramps
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