Lessons learned in childhood have never left

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As a boy I would stay at my grandparents for a few days each year during summer vacation. School would let out on Friday before Memorial Day and start again on Tuesday following Labor Day. I would look forward to the days that I would be staying with my grandparents.

My grandparents on my mother’s side were loggers. Grandpa would take me to the woods with him, and even if I wasn’t much help, I was able to see how the logging business worked. I really liked the horses. Grandpa would let me help feed them and put them up for the night. I was amazed at how powerful they were as they pulled the logs out of the woods. Then I would go the the mill and watch as they sawed those logs into lumber.

Through the summer I would also stay at my grandparents on my father’s side. They owned a dairy farm. They raised the corn and hay necessary to feed the livestock. They raised hogs and beef cattle for meat, and chickens for eggs. When I would stay with them, I would do any of the farm work that a young boy could do. I so much looked forward to those times during summer vacation that I could stay with my grandparents. In those early days of my life I was very fortunate to learn about the blessings that will come with a good days work.

As I grew older, the lessons I had learned in my childhood never left me. There were times however, that the work I was doing did not seem to be a blessing but I learned to kept at it until it was completed. Upon completion I would look at what I had accomplished and realize that the blessing was in the pride I could take in what I had done. Looking back gave me a sense of accomplishment of a tough job well done. As I think about my grandparents, I realize the work that I thought was so much fun to them was work that needed to be done in order to make provision for the family. Even though it was not always an enjoyable task, they did it to bless us.

1 Corinthians 13:11; “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

I have come to realize every blessing that I have was paid for by someone. My grandparents passed down to me the opportunity to experience a sense of accomplishment through their example of finishing the task at hand. If all I would have ever learned from my childhood was having fun and getting my own way, I would never grow to understand what receiving and passing on a blessing was. I would then, as a man, always be searching for reward and leisure without effort which would lead to a selfish and disappointing life. The greatest blessing we will ever received is the salvation that was paid for by Jesus. Receive and pass it on!

These are the day to day issues we address at the Gathering Place every Wednesday evening at 7 and Sunday morning at 9:30 and 10:30. We have Youth Group on Sunday evening at 6. Come and join in!

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By Pastor John Pfeifer

Getting Ahead

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