Day 184 Things I Learned

 

7/3/2025

"In their hearts humans plan their course, 

but the LORD establishes their steps."

Proverbs 16:9  

 

"If you could take one lesson you learned from your father or grandfather - and pass it on to your children or grandchildren, what would it be?" 

This was the question posed in my Daily Walk for July 2nd, as I was pouring over the Proverbs trying to snag some wisdom for the day. Solomon certainly was wise, as he had an answer for everything, and if heeded, a person would do well. One of the wisest sayings of King Solomon was found in Proverbs 9:10: "For the reverence and fear of God are basic to all wisdom. Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding." I'm not wise like Solomon was, but I do believe what he said is so true. 

Regarding the wisdom my father and grandfather passed along to me...! I remember my daddy always telling me to "use your head!" It's not that I was hard - headed, although I could be quite adventurous at times. It wasn't that he thought I was slow witted, rather, I think he wanted me to apply myself and use the intelligence he knew God had gifted to me. I don't know why I think that now, because at the time I thought he was being cruel. He was stern in so many ways, but he also had a gentleness that I think only I may have been able to see, because I study people and think about what they say and why. Maybe that's a gift too, and perhaps a reason God had me turn the corner of my Big Dream to one I felt was lesser. But then, nothing to God is less. Often, it's much, much more, because only I could do it. That's the way it is when He created us, ya know! But then, maybe you don't know that. Then you best re-read Psalm 139, as it talks about how He saw us before He crafted us. How he has a book with our names on it, and in it are the specifics of each life. So we each have a job to do. I'll leave you to think about that.

My daddy also taught me to finish what I start. He loved to piddle, but he always finished it, even if he had to stop and think about how to do a certain thing. Sometimes, if he didn't have the money to do it the way he'd like, he always found unique ways to get the job done. I think my daddy was a genius in many ways. He didn't have a great deal of academic learning, but he could do and understand a lot more than some college so-called scholars could do. He even knew that New Mexico was a State and not Mexico. I thought I'd add that part, because I know a certain PhD who did not know the difference. No kidding!! My son, Daniel, may have acquired my daddy's skills in fixing things, and his vocation was mechanics. I asked him recently if he was able to return to work again and could do anything, what would he do. He said he'd be a mechanic. Doing what one loves is most important, and that what my daddy did too.

My grandfather, papa to me, died when I was in my early 30's, so he never had the opportunity to visit me in New Mexico. He would have loved it. Daddy sure did until his heart prevented the altitude adjustment. But papa loved to hop in the car and ride. He'd stop by the house anytime in the afternoon, and he'd say "Let's go for a ride." I think that's where I got my adventurous side, as I love to take road trips. I'll be doing that soon, hopefully. I've never been afraid to go anywhere, and I have done my share of covering this country, but there's still so much to see. Sometimes when I'm driving along, I'll think about papa and how he'd love to see certain sights. How I miss him! 

In thinking about what papa said or did, I think of his ability to tell a story well. He was friendly, and he loved my grammy. Just like daddy loved my mama. At least so it appeared to me. Both my papa and my daddy were mechanics, and both liked to garden. I don't remember if my daddy had started going to church regularly before papa died, but papa was a deacon in the small country church where I started out. He knew I loved to read, and he knew I loved to be in the woods, climbing trees or riding my stick horse or building a fort in the woods with tree branches, pine cones and leaves. He knew I loved watermelon and could eat the entire one, unless he stopped me. He used to make me sit on the ice cream freezer while he cranked to the end. He taught me to rake the leaves, then tumble down the hill smack into the middle of the pile. He taught me to laugh instead of cry, and he taught me to see life through the eyes of God. He got me my first real job working with church friends in getting the tobacco harvested. I never was a smoker, but I dearly loved to work tobacco. 

Sometimes, when things happen in a person's life, things that can damage a person's soul, causing great trauma, it is hard to forget. It can cripple a person mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually. It can make someone physically ill, and it can be irreparable, without Jesus. In thinking about my life as a child, about what I learned about my daddy's and papa's characters I can see that what I learned from them, even incidentally, helped me cope when things were hard. It also gave me great insight into the heart of a person by watching what they do, listening to what they say, how they say things or do things. The intention of the heart. 

I wonder what my papa would think of the person I have become? In spite of the wrong choices I have made in my life I knew that my daddy was proud of me, because he told me so, and he never tells anyone these things. He observed, he formed opinions based on what he heard sometimes, but he would admit to being wrong. I think we all have a tendency to do that or pick up offenses. Still, my daddy and my papa were honest men, and I believe they knew God was ever present in their lives. I've shared before that I saw my daddy on his crippled, aching knees kneeling beside the bed in deep conversation with Jesus. I imagine my papa had his way of communing with Jesus as well. Hopefully, I'll find out soon when I'm finished my race. Until then, I'll keep dreaming my dreams, finishing the ones I'm working on now, knowing there's more to be done. And that's okay with me. I'll always be the gal sitting on the world, looking off, dreaming on the great things yet to be, of the people I'll meet and help along the way, content knowing no dream is truly lost,\, it may just have moved a little further from sight, for the time being. But I'm learning that although my chronological age is advancing, that doesn't make a difference to God's plan, so I hang on...and I wait. I truly believe the best is yet to be in His design for my life, even though the world is advancing to evil. I'll just counter it with love, and that I learned from my father and grandfather, and hopefully, I passed it on to my children and grandchildren, and prayerfully, it will be passed on to the great-grandchildren.