This Week in Review

It Is What It Is News: Just when I thought it could not be more hot and humid in Kansas, it got hotter and humider. Yes, humider is a word because I just made it a word. Never mind that my Mac keeps changing my word to “humidor.”

Good News: We were privileged to be there to greet our grandson, Michael Powers, upon his arrival home from his five-week trip to Africa and to hear about his mission activities and four-day safari.

Bad News: We received word that our three-year-old great-grandson, Sawyer Walker, had broken his leg.

Good News: Just as we stood in church to sing the first hymn, Hubby’s cell phone vibrated and there was a message telling us that Greyson Quinn Fuller, our new little great-grandson, had just made his debut in Michigan.

Bad News: We live too far away to see Greyson right away.

Good News: I have pictures and, of course, I’m sharing one here.

Greyson Quinn Fuller

7 lbs. 5 oz.

Crossword Puzzles and Memory Lane

A crossword puzzle I was working on today took me down memory lane to a time many years ago when I attended missionary conventions sponsored by the Rocky Mountain District of the Pilgrim Holiness Church. This church is a part of my heritage and where I received my religious training.

The aforementioned puzzle, which is based on the King James Bible, required filling in a blank for Luke 10:35. This verse, a portion of the story of the Good Samaritan, tells what happened after the injured man had been cared for and the Samaritan was departing. It says “…he took out two pence, and gave them to the host and said unto him. ‘Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.’”

This fill-in-the-blank activity called to mind a song we sang at missionary conventions during my growing-up years. Written by Wingrove Ives, a longtime missionary in the church, it always spoke to me. Somewhere in my possessions I have the complete song, but the part that I remember well is the chorus:

     "On the darkest side of the road, where the sick and wounded lie;

     They're calling for help and mercy, oh how can you pass them by?

     The Savior asks your love in the service of want and pain,

     And anything more that thou spendest

     He'll pay when he comes again."

  

This song, based on Christ’s parable, always caused me to reflect on what Christians are supposed to be doing.

I can thank my church for the solid foundation of beliefs on which I stand. My religious training in my younger years included attending Sunday School and learning a scripture verse each week; memorizing the 202 questions and answers in the General Catechism for Senior Young People (by S. I Emery); and committing to memory (among other things) The Beatitudes, The Ten Commandments, The Apostles’ Creed, The Lord’s Prayer, Psalms 1, 23, & 121, The Baptismal Covenant, Morning Prayer, Prayer for Pardon, Prayer for Cleansing, and Evening Prayer.

I don’t need a coffee bar at my place of worship to wake me up or a ditty set to a rock beat to make me feel good. And when the older generation in the church is portrayed as being a problem or standing in the way, I never doubt that I am actually in THE way. I do wonder, though, how we got from the gospel as presented by Jesus to here.

Wonderful Man/Wonderful Father

D. W. Lacy

Early pictures of my dad are scarce. But I do have one of him while he was attending Colorado Springs Bible Training School (the name of this school was later changed to Colorado Springs Bible College). He was eighteen years old at the time the picture was taken.

Dad - back, second from left.

It was always "Daddy and Mama." Like a horse and carriage, they functioned as one.

D. W. Lacy and Vera Lauretta Morrell Lacy - their wedding day and their fiftieth anniversary.

As far as I know, there is only one picture in existence of my Daddy holding me as a child. Our family never owned a camera and I do not know who took this picture.

Daddy and Mama, David (brother), and me in front of our home in Bladen, Nebraska. I was one year old.

Dad was serious about his work, but he also enjoyed a good time. As a minister, Dad wore a white shirt and tie unless he was involved in yard work or fixing things. So it was never surprising to see him doing an activity while wearing a tie. When he stayed in our home for extended periods of time during his later years, he dressed up every day. Our neighbors had something to talk about when our house guest, dressed in a suit and tie, walked our little dog.

Playing horseshoes at the camp ground.

Dad went with our family on several weeklong vacations after Mom passed away. We enjoyed having him with us at a North Carolina beach, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and at a lake resort in Michigan. While in Michigan our family took a day trip to Mackinaw Island. It was Dad’s first trip there and he enjoyed it immensely.

Dad, pictured with Hubby, on a carriage tour of Mackinaw Island. The reason I don’t have pictures of Dad and me (even after I became an adult) is because I seemed to always be the one taking the pictures.

Dad always had his own special way of getting important things accomplished.

• When, as a second-grader, I wanted a bicycle, Daddy beat the low family budget by becoming a scavenger at the city dump. He found old bikes from which he collected a frame and parts. These he used to construct my one-of-a kind, bright red envy of the neighborhood girls. It was much later that I learned the bike was not new.
• When my brother and I wanted a sled, no problem. Daddy spent his spare time in the garage making a sled from scrap lumber. After he honed and polished the runners, he waxed them with paraffin. Perfect for skimming over deep snow and rough terrain! A rope was attached to the steering mechanism and we enjoyed many hours of fun on the snowy slopes of Colorado.
• When, as a child, I had migraine headaches, Daddy massaged the base of my neck and head until I relaxed and the pain was dulled.
• When, at sixteen, I received a letter from a boyfriend informing me that because I had not been willing to cancel plans with my family and do what he wanted to do on the Fourth of July, he did not plan to date me anymore. Daddy, wise man that he was, took me out for a coke and told me that any guy that selfish was a “knucklehead” totally unworthy of my time. I was smiling by the time we got in the car to head back home.
• When purchasing anything for himself, Daddy did not value designer names or shop at high-end stores. He never wanted to do anything that would endanger the security of his family. When I was helping him pack some things so he could come to our home to spend a few weeks, I found, still in gift boxes, very expensive white shirts that both my sister and I had purchased for him. When I asked him why he had not worn them, he let me know that the shirts he was wearing were not yet worn out. "Waste not, want not” was his motto even when he was not putting out his own cash.

Daddy and Mama were one-of-a-kind originals and great examples for their kids to follow. Special days of celebration always cause me think about their lives and pray that some of what they modeled is reflected in my life.

Image: Carson Dellosa Clipart