Chapter 12
FORGET ALL MY TOIL,
AND ALL MY FATHER’S HOUSE.
(A
snowy, leisurely Saturday morning in late February 1965 on Auburn University’s
campus. A time of deep reflection.)
“And
unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came…And Joseph
called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me
forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.” (Genesis
41:50-51)
I give
you this Holy Scripture at the start for you to see exactly from
whence came this chapter’s title. In the Scripture above, I underlined 2 things
that Joseph said that God had made him forget. Down thru many years of my adult
life, these words from Joseph come to my mind regarding my own upbringing.
Auburn’s
mild climate in southern Alabama is noticeably milder than my boyhood
home near Vernon, much farther north in the same state. Snowfall at
Auburn is rare and small in quantity, but it does snow occasionally.
Early on a Saturday morning as I walk to the
cafeteria, a lovely light snow is falling. Likely it was
27 February (1965). After eating my fill for breakfast, and
then serving the few girls who didn’t leave for the weekend, and who took the
trouble to get up early on Saturday for breakfast, I walk to the Student Union Building
and sit down in a comfortable, padded “easy” chair in the lounge in front of
the TV. Often, I study most of the day on Saturday in the university library,
and in my warm room. This day, I just took off for the morning and relaxed.
I was
scheduled to “substitute” (work) the lunch hour also at the cafeteria, eating
lunch first before serving the girls. Thus, from the time I get to the Student Union
Building till I leave there for lunchtime work is only 3 hours or so.
In my
earthly parents’ house, our family always had 3 meals a day to eat, thank God.
But some times the food was sparse with little
variety. During the long summers, we typically had lots of fresh fruits from
our trees and vines, and plenty of fresh veggies that we grew. We canned some
of them and put away potatoes and such for the winter. Still, the supply got
low at times in the winter. Sometimes, cornbread, potatoes and peas were the
continuous dinners (lunch) and suppers thru out much of the winter. I should
have been much more thankful than I was, for
having daily bread, tho often the fare was sparse and lacked variety.
At
breakfast, we had eggs if our chickens were “laying” at
the time. At times there was only a small mound of scrambled eggs for the
entire family to divide. At times, there was no breakfast meat and no eggs.
Then we only had biscuits and gravy with butter and syrup (or jelly). I
naturally like milk. Most of the time one or both of our milk cows were giving
milk, and we had milk to drink at mealtime. Sometimes, both cows were “dry” at
the same time, and we went without milk to drink. Also, when the pasture was
green, many “bitter weeds” grew in it. It made the milk most bitter when the cows ate those weeds. I just couldn’t
bear to drink the milk when it was quite bitter, tho I
wanted it. When we churned bitter milk into butter, it made the butter bitter. Usually,
I could manage to eat the bitter butter.
Daddy
could always drink the bitter milk. Also, he never
complained when he took just a tiny portion of eggs at breakfast when they were
scarce. And he did hard adult labor that required much
strength. That stoic father never complained, tho
he must have been hungry at times. (At this time, we did not buy the
above-mentioned foods at the grocery store because of our poverty. If the farm
didn’t “produce” enough of them, we simply got by with the scarce fare.)
This
snowy February 1965 morning at Auburn (just past my 19th birthday),
I had eaten breakfast to the full. When the cafeteria put
out a choice of fried or scrambled eggs for the girls, I often put a large
helping of scrambled eggs on top of 2 fried eggs on my plate, then at the
eating table I chopped up that mound with my fork turned sideways to mix them
all together (4 eggs or so). I also took plenty of meat, toast &
jelly, grits, juice and milk (not bitter) with that mountain of eggs. My
skeletal frame put on a little flesh. In less than a
month from this snowy day, I am to start working full time in that cafeteria;
eating 3 dietician-planned meals there each day with no limit on how much I am
allowed to eat each meal. Thank God, I
move into a new comfort zone, to put it most mildly.
Reading
an article in a health magazine a few years after this, the writer stated: “I never
tell my stomach I am poor.” He went on to relate that he would buy fresh
grapes, avocados and such, because they are healthy, tho
a little expensive. I thought about the many times I could not but help but tell my
stomach I was poor, because I was poor, and that poverty did
prevent me from eating enough to constitute a healthy diet. I am most
thankful that my poverty-induced sparse eating ended at this point in February 1965, and did not come back into my life again until
about 1976.
(New
subject) As I grew up in my father’s house, Daddy worked us
boys most every Saturday. But in the winter or on a rainy Saturday, we might be
in the house or working in and out of the house on Saturday. After the TV
entered our house just before I entered 7th grade, I liked to watch
TV Saturday morning cartoons, and other shows geared to kids. But Mrs. Ryan
didn’t care for them, and often didn’t have her TV
turned on at that time. But, if the TV was on, and I tried to watch cartoons
(when we were working around the house as opposed to being in the field), Daddy
might call me to work at any time. He practically never gave us the
consideration of discussing such with us boys.
For
example, “OK, we have to work most of this day
(in the barn, or woodshed, or such), but I’ll let you choose one 30-minute
show to watch on TV today. And the rest of the time, you work hard in exchange
for that favor. OK?” If only he would have done
something like that, I could have thoroughly relaxed and enjoyed the
30 minutes of TV he allowed me. But he didn’t do such. And if I tried to watch
TV, I was subject to him abruptly calling me out to work any time,
and often addressing me harshly when he did so.
“For
God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all
my father’s house.” Reader Friend, how hard could Jacob have made youthful Joseph to work,
Joseph being his favored son? I ponder such when I read the above
Scripture. I know his brethren treated Joseph most cruelly. But apparently,
he also did hard work under his father as he grew
up (and that is certainly appropriate). To our natural mind we could easily
think it most rude of anyone to be happy about forgetting “all of
my father’s house” after leaving it. But Joseph is a type of Christ, and this important
“Bible type,” said it. Thus, I don’t feel unduly sacrilegious
about feeling similarly, and even telling you of those
feelings.
I
mention all that to say; that on this snowy Saturday morning, I sort of
just kicked back in a most relaxed manner knowing that no one will disturb me, and subconsciously made
this a Memorial Day for me to start forgetting
all my toil, and all my father’s house. Put it ALL behind me and press on to the things that are before me,
hopefully things that are to be much better in many aspects! It
sure felt good to have that part of my life in the past, never to have to
return to it. (In the near future, the roofing job and Marine Corps training I
will endure during the next few years, will definitely be
rigorous “toil”. But that is a different matter, especially the
Marine toil, having some amount of vain worldly
glory to it!)
“This
one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before.”
(It behooves each of us to do just as Paul did in the above Scripture!)
It
felt good to know I could choose to relax undisturbed this whole
Saturday morning, childlike (like a 10-year-old), watching Woody Woodpecker and
Roadrunner cartoons on TV. On the light side, I sort of feel like I retired in
life when Daddy unceremoniously released me from his dominion back in early
June last year. It was the end of much rigorous
toil for me (which is most beneficial to me till I die), and also the end of other related misery, like my feet being
in constant pain a few months from those shoes that were too small for me, simply
because Daddy did not take me to the shoe store to try them on. He just
guessed the size when he bought them. He guessed wrong, to my much
discomfort.
Parents,
the only reason The Holy Spirit is now telling me to relate these
horrors to you is for you to seriously consider that it is not
necessary at all for you to inflict such pain upon your children. The sorrow of
my Mother’s death could not be helped. Our family’s
poverty-induced misery essentially could not be helped. Being reared
doing hard farm labor benefited me. But there was a good amount
of misery (written in these following paragraphs) that could have been
prevented by better knowledge, thinking, and planning. Parent, listen to your Lord
speaking thus to you right now!
The
Southern rural Christians of my parents’ generation (born between 1910 and
1920) were (in general) most upright in the clean, moral
Christian lives they lived, much more so than today’s (2024) Christians
who live on that same sod. But their ignorance of some matters (that
resulted in torturous misery for me) was akin to Dark Age
superstition.
When
one of us kids caught a cold or had a stomachache or such, the common
remedy for most all such ailments was a
big tablespoonful of warm castor oil taken internally. When I got old
enough to read “For external use only” clearly written on the
castor oil bottle label, it made sense to me that I usually couldn’t hold down
that large dose of “poisonous” warm castor oil,
but rather vomited it right back up as soon as I swallowed it.
When I
was about 5 or 6 years old, in the wintertime it wasn’t rare for one of us kids
to awake in the morning with cold symptoms from
sleeping in that cold, drafty house. At the breakfast table, if Daddy or Mother
saw that any one of us 4 children needed “doctoring”, one of them would take
the glass bottle of castor oil from its place in the cabinet and place it in
the upper compartment of our wood stove (along with that large “shovel-size”
spoon) to heat both of them (for best effect, so they believed).
Upon
seeing that, the sick child felt like a death sentence had been
passed upon him or her. Such terrible dread of that dose came upon the
intended “victim” that he or she could not enjoy another bite of breakfast.
When we finished eating, if I were the victim, one parent would hold my head or
arms or such, while the other put that hot spoon of “vomit inducing poison”
into my mouth. Both the smell and taste of “external use only” castor
oil were putrid. Heating it increased its “putridness”.
Gagging on it, I would swallow. As soon as that hot poison reached my
stomach, usually I vomited it right back up, along with the breakfast food I had just eaten as morning nourishment
for my growing body. Both parents would be dismayed at the failed results,
and debate whether or not to “try again” (by pouring another
dose of that putrid warm poison down my gullet).
“For
God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all
my father’s house.” “Amen!” Upon
leaving my father’s house, truly, truly there was much
I wanted to forget. During the cold winter, we kids would huddle close to the
hot wood burning heater in the middle of the living room trying to stay warm.
We would occasionally bump the heater, burning an
elbow or such. My parents believed writing ink was good for treating skin
burns. (This was before ballpoint pens had been invented and most households
kept a bottle of ink for fountain pens.) So, I would get a good dose of writing
ink painfully rubbed into my burned skin. Some parents (not my parents
thankfully) believed that the burned spot on the arm or hand should be held
close to the heat (the hot surface of the wood stove that had just burned the
child), for the heat from the stove to draw the heat out of the burned
flesh. (Criminally insane stupidity was that torture!!) (We now
well know that ice or cold water should be applied to abate the burn.) In 1950,
some rural parents did just the opposite. I have far too many such
true-life horror stories!!
I am
most blessed to have experienced old-fashioned (human and
animal power only) farm life when I was small, doing hard physical farm labor,
enjoying God’s nature doing wholesome things like hunting, fishing, swimming
and playing in nature. The physical poverty I endured has yielded much
spiritual richness in my life. I thank God for it all. God made me a happy
boy. I enjoyed life during my childhood. I thank God for making me plenty
happy thru out a childhood of much adversity.
However, upon reaching 78 years of
age, my most prominent thoughts of my upbringing are;
that it
was a gloomy time for me that I desire to forget, instead of
joyfully reminiscing upon it! I have almost no inclination to reminisce
on it. It entailed plenty of physical pain and suffering (much of it
unnecessary, easily preventable by better parenting). And Dad’s much silence toward me is also a big factor in my
boyhood becoming a gloomy memory in my latter years.
Christian
parents, listen to The Holy Spirit now speaking to you concerning
what you have just read. No matter how difficult life might be for your family,
you can constantly speak to your offspring of victory in
Jesus, sing aloud of victory in Jesus, and confess to your
children that Almighty God loves them dearly, and will of a certainty
take good care of them no matter what comes into their lives. You can freely speak
to them of such definite hope and of the Joy of the
Lord, and sing with them of such. You can ask
your little children to sing to you, the songs they know about Jesus.
And
you can greatly rejoice in their presence that they are doing
such a blessed thing with their God-given voices. You can do many more similar
things that will fill their hearts with God’s Joy and Hope, thus expelling
gloom that naturally tries to rule in hearts that are
experiencing hard times. And you can tell them to definitely
expect things to get better, because this family, our
family, loves the Lord Jesus. Broadcasting such joy of the Lord from your
heart requires no money, material
things or assets, or such. I so dearly wish my Daddy (and
Mother) had done such with us children.
Parent:
ask God to fill you with His Wisdom that is necessary to
bring up your offspring in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord. And the Lord will not have to impart much wisdom to you at all, for you
to know better than to pour poison into a small child’s sensitive
stomach when the label on the bottle clearly states
“For external use only”. Just a tiny bit of God’s Wisdom will give you sense
enough to take a growing child to the shoe store with you to try on the new
shoes, to ensure they are large enough for the child’s growing feet.
These
2 examples (above) are ever so simple matters. Thus,
there is no excuse for a parent bringing the unnecessary
torments into a child’s life that I experienced in these 2 matters (and other
similar matters). Enough said, I hope. Now listen closely to God’s Holy Spirit
instructing you on needed corrections as you rear your children! (If you
now have growing grandchildren, then tell your children that this
chapter is required reading for them, as parents.)
1h. Forgetting the toils of my father’s house.
On this
relaxed, snowy Saturday morning in late February 1965, Clem had already hired
me to work full time in the cafeteria when the spring term
soon starts in late March. Receiving the promise of that job basically
and practically ended my job-hunting to date, (now past 78 years of
age). That act of God’s Abundant Grace in my life has been most
bless-ed.
I will
continue to joyfully work in that girls’ cafeteria till I graduate from
Auburn. During the breaks between university quarters at Auburn, I will
continue working for Mr. Mars. Back in January 1965 (last month), I had been
accepted into Navy ROTC. On my graduation day at Auburn, in a separate ceremony
that morning I will also be commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S.
Marine Corps, and go right on to full-time active duty
with the Marines.
A few
years later, the Marines will send me to a base in Japan where God will then
call me to serve Him for the remainder of my life in that nation of many
idols. On this snowy Saturday morn in late February 1965, I am over 1 month
past my 19th birthday. I wonder how few souls have never had
to hunt for a job after that age? What a miracle!
What a most wonderful thing the Lord did for my life! Thank
Thee, Lord Jesus!
1i. In February 1965, immediately after reaching
19 years of age, no longer having
to hunt for a job for the rest of my earthly life (to date, 2024).
Friend, right now surrender your life fully to
your Creator God, and daily call upon Him to perfect it. There is no need for anyone who knows Almighty God to
flounder around aimlessly, tossed about on the Sea of Life. Almighty God (Whose
Way is Perfect) desires to perfect my way, your way, and the way and path of each and every human soul on this earth. (Psalms
18:30-32) May He help each of us to fully yield our own being to our
Creator, for Him to perfect each of us as we journey to Eternity
that is so near ahead!
(Please
read additional important comments I make on this in Chapter 31.)
Serving meals in the cafeteria was my 4th employment (not
counting the few miserable days I worked in the Tiger Cub Café a few weeks
ago). My first 3 jobs that originated at home in Vernon came to me because of my Godly
earthly father. I am quite sure there was no similar input from Dad
regarding any of the jobs my 3 siblings obtained after high school. It was a tremendous
help to me to gain each of those jobs, and Daddy had to put forth practically
no effort doing his part to obtain them for me. It is amazing how wonderful
things turn out, when, In God We Truly Trust!
Tommy W. told me where to find the perfect room at Auburn. Soon after,
he came to me in that room, asking me to substitute for him at his job, which gave
me this fine job in the girls’ cafeteria. I wasn’t out searching for that job.
Four times now, My Most Gracious Lord has freely laid a good job in my
lap with practically no effort on my part.
(Then, approximately 40 years later, around 2005, Tommy W.’s niece will
start doing hi tech work for me, maintaining this home page on which you are
reading this. Intriguing it be, the connected (related) people God brings into
my life to be an immense help to me!)
Truly, Lord Jesus, it is amazing how wonderful
Thou art to us all. Thank Thee, Lord, for helpful
family and friends, and for bringing unto me the jobs that I needed to earn
wages. I give Thee the Glory for doing so. Thank Thee for saving me from
the frustration of job hunting.
“For God, said he, hath made me forget
all my toil, and all my father’s house.” Growing up, I set my boyish
heart on various great things I wanted to do when I got big. I
wanted to be a policeman, an FBI agent, a lawyer, and then military jet pilot.
Childhood dreams change often. However, there was one certain desire always
absent from my growing heart. I was never desirous
to live out my life in the place where I was born and grew up.
I perceive that there are several reasons for that, the foremost being
that God was creating within me a heart that would readily obey Him,
when (a few years later) He will speak to me words almost exactly like He spoke
to Abram. “Get thee out of
thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land
that I will show thee.” (Genesis 12:1) In similar manner, the Lord called me
to serve Him in Japan (on the opposite side of the globe from my father’s
house). I am most thankful that Almighty God had (beforehand) created
within me a heart willing, ready, and eager to go
and to live in this foreign nation.
But another factor definitely made
me want to get away from my “home place” upon reaching adulthood, that being my
family’s poverty. Poverty is inherently embarrassing. In
the Vernon area, all the souls around me observed my family’s poverty as I grew
up. Poverty often made for miserable and embarrassing
circumstances that made me feel ashamed around everyone that observed my
poverty.
So, I felt relieved to leave Vernon just before turning
19 years of age, to be out of the presence of all who had observed much
poverty-induced embarrassment to me as I grew up. I wanted to distance myself
from that childhood setting, putting it behind me in any and every way
possible. Even tho all my fellow college students and the professors around
me at Auburn could readily discern that I was an uncouth, redneck
farm boy, they didn’t know the many embarrassing details
of it, for which I was most thankful!
And Almighty God was most gracious to me regarding me distancing
myself from my roots. In just a few years after leaving my childhood
home, my Lord sent me to the opposite side of this globe to live
the rest of my life. I am most thankful to my Creator for blessing me so
much by distancing me (from my roots) just about
as far as is possible on this planet Earth.
1j. Distancing myself from all the acquaintances
of my childhood who observed my embarrassing poverty thru out my
upbringing.
Let me close this chapter with a sidelight (an important one).
Thru out all my boyhood, sitting thru at least 5 weekly church services
(and extra services many weeks) with my
childish flesh always bored to some degree with spiritual things, often a natural
thought would play around in my mind. ‘When I grow up and leave home, I won’t
have to go to church if I don’t want to.’ But upon arriving at Auburn, as soon
as Sunday rolled around, I head to First Baptist Church on my own will, and
continue to do so each Sunday. Why? Because I was trained up to attend church
weekly. “Train up a
child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he
will not depart from it.” (Proverbs
22:6)
I soon begin attending Baptist Student Union activities, which (along
with working at the dining hall) becomes a wonderful social life for
me at Auburn. Most first term college freshmen make complete arrangements for
living quarters weeks in advance. Often beforehand, parents bring the
kid on a trip here for that purpose, and then again bring the kid
student at the start of the first term. Parents help lug kid’s luggage into kid’s
dorm room, followed by a tearful Farewell before the parents depart. Kid doesn’t
have to sleep in kid’s car the first cold night upon arriving.
I drove alone to Auburn just before the start of the
2-day registration period, with only scant knowledge as to where to
search for a room. It would have been simple to request a dorm room in advance
by mail. They were readily available. But I would definitely have a roommate, and an uproar of
devilment going on around me most all the time in the dorm. I was determined
to stay away from all that mess.
But while driving here, I was plenty apprehensive about easily
finding lodging and having enough money to eat during this term. This
apprehension was plenty unsettling. Thank God I immediately found a nice private
warm room in a quiet location, and soon found the most
ideal place in town (on the entire planet actually)
to work for my meals.
Therefore, now as I look out the large windows at the lovely snow-covered
campus this Saturday in February, I have much peace due to my ideal
rooming and ideal eating situations that include a wonderful
social life also. Truly it was a day for deep reflection, and to
thank Almighty God for an abundance of mercy and grace bestowed
upon unworthy me.
Meditating on our Creator God’s Holy Scriptures, in Them, the number 12
clearly indicates Completion. Well, lookie here! This chapter
number “just happened” to fall on number 12! And it completes all the “points”
of my First Major Improvement in life. I didn’t plan and arrange for this
chapter to be this number. It “just happened”. Glory!
So, I depart the Student Union Building for the pleasant walk back to
the dining hall to feed the girls their lunch, that is, if any food
remains for them after I eat half a truckload of it.
“Feeding these lovely young ladies sure beats feeding the hogs on the
farm, doesn’t it, College Farm Boy???”
‘It sure does! Now, one would think I am the hog,
seeing the amount of food I eat in their dining hall.’
A summary of my 1st major change, advancement, in life; June 1964-February 1965:
1a.
Daddy releases me from his strict dominion, early June 1964. (Chapter 10)
1b. I enter employment and start working for wages. (Ch. 10)
1c. I
get my drivers’ license and soon buy my 1st motor vehicle. (Ch. 10)
1d. I
move out of my boyhood home, my earthly father’s house. (Ch. 11)
1e. Upon
arriving at Auburn, for the first time on a regular basis, I now have an indoor
shower for a good bath, an indoor restroom for great convenience, and my own
private room with central heat, bed, desk, chair, chest-of drawers, and closet,
all for my own personal use and comfort (after a childhood of sharing a crowded
“bedroom” with 2 or 3 other family members). (Ch. 11)
1f. I enroll in a university. (Ch. 11)
1g.
Starting to work in a co-ed cafeteria at Auburn, thus eating 3 wholesome meals
a day (as much as I want to eat), and having the delightful job of
serving meals to lovely, sweet Southern belles. (Nothing
toilsome about this work) (Ch. 11)
1h.
Forgetting the toils of my father’s house. (Ch. 12)
1i. In
February 1965, immediately after reaching 19 years of age, no
longer having to hunt for a job for the rest of my
earthly life (to date, 2024). (Ch. 12)
1j.
Distancing myself from all my childhood acquaintances who observed my embarrassing
poverty thru out my upbringing. (Ch. 12)
“I’m
happy for you, Farm Boy Turned College Boy!”
‘Thank
you! And to God be the Glory!’
BRIEF
EPOLOUGE TO THESE FIRST 12 CHAPTERS, ESPECIALLY THIS FIRST MAJOR “IMPROVEMENT
AND ADVANCEMENT” LISTED ABOVE.
“For
what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own
soul?” (Mark 8:36)
Each
human soul (that lives to an age where he or she is mentally mature enough to
do so) confronts, decides, and chooses his or her eternal
destiny. By far, that is THE most important decision, choice, change,
advancement, improvement.
Having
now stated that clearly, to all you lost souls headed for eternal Hell fire,
and to all you saved souls headed for eternal bliss with the Lord Jesus Christ,
children of the devil and children of God; I am not including that
Spiritual choice I made, in these numbered advances in my earthly
life.
Perchance Our
Lord tarries, and perchance He allows me to reach fourscore years of age
in early 2026, and perchance He enables me to type this life story of
mine up to date by then, I will probably list a total of 7 major
changes, improvements.
In general,
this 1st one is second in importance, in that it ended much
childhood labor made harsh by dire poverty, and
brought me into sufficiently comfortable and hygienic
living conditions (room and board). Such is well detailed in Chapters 3 thru
12.
The
improvement that I rate most important (keep in mind that my eternal
salvation is totally separate from this list) is the change of
my Lord making me into a foreign missionary to Japan (a
nation of many idols and strong demonic power), for the remainder of my
earthly pilgrimage. AMEN AND AMEN!!!
The
End of Chapter 12