Wednesday, June 19, 2019
I thought I would pull another Devotional from Gramps Archives and this one came up. It is only a year old, but I thought it appropriate.
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).
Hey gang, A confession, I feel very qualified to address the title of the day for Slue foot reminds me of my shortcomings on a regular basis. Now what triggered that in my mind? I mean, when we give our lives to Jesus, should we not put the past in the garbage can and move to higher ground? Did Paul not say, “When you were dead in your transgression and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all of our transgressions” (Col. 2:13).
I recently came across the following statement that got my attention; “You are what you think you are”. That kind of brought a whole barrelful of thoughts, questions and even memories out of the cedar chest of my past. As I stood in front of the bathroom mirror and asked, “Is that really true?” I had to agree that was partially true in my life.
I was born the son of a coal miner who had an eighth-grade education and very limited social skills. My mother was also an eighth-grade graduate and equally lacking in social skills. You might say, we lived in a coal miner’s environment, where education and advancement were not topics of discussion. It was said that my mother had the potential to be an accomplished pianist and my dad the unique ability to be able to fix just about anything.
Their hearts’ desire was to move up the social ladder but there was a huge yoke around their necks - eighth-grade educations -in a period when the depression was like a hammer in the lives of the masses.
And then one day an injury in the coal mine ended his coal shoveling days. There are times when adversity can be a dictatorial motivating power to seek higher ground. After moving his family from deep in the mountains (they used to say we lived so far back in the sticks even the hoot owls carried knapsacks and they had to pump sunshine to us) he pounded the streets until he ran into a painter who needed a painter who was fearless and willing to climb radio towers and paint them by dipping his gloved hand in a bucket of paint and using it as a paint brush as he descended down the tower.
Shortly after we arrived in the city I was enrolled in school. They placed me in a class with more kids than I had ever crossed paths with in my first six years. On the first day of school I gained immediate attention because my name was Kermit, I had large front teeth that resembled “buck teeth”, wore knickers and brogan shoes, which placed an immediate target on my back.
Due to our economic woes, it was deemed by the school district that I should receive milk twice a day- which only added to my harassment as the ‘milky kid’ who had to go into the bowels of the school and drink my two pints of milk each day.
To say I was a very bad student is to put it very mildly. I learned very early to detest walking up Fourth Street to that place of pain called Fairview Elementary School, which set the stage for my twelve years in the educational system of Altoona, Pennsylvania. Now I tell you this to set the stage for what is to come which I will pick up on in the next Tuesday morning message.
As Paul Harvey often said, “Tune in tomorrow and get the rest of the story”. Keep in mind the focus of these messages is to give hope to those who believe they have nothing to offer to God.
Blessings,
Gramps
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