Undelivered Letters

This was penned sometime between 1963-1968.

How many of you like to receive and write letters? Everyone of us anxiously awaits the letter from that special someone. There is just something about getting a letter from someone you haven't seen in a long time that just lifts you up and fills a little of the vacancy that they leave.

When you write a letter you put a little of yourself into the letter, don't you? Sometimes you can put something in a letter that you couldn't say to the person to his or her face at all. When you write that letter..(Sometimes it's quite a chore to just write a little 'ole bitty letter!) ... but after you've gone to the trouble and lick the envelope and stamp (just think... $.05 for a stamp now!!) ... you certainly want to be sure it reaches the person that it was intended, don't you?

I heard about this postman in California who was arrested and they found 5,000 unopened letters in his house. When they questioned him, this is what he said, "My feet hurt. I would get so far on my route and my feet would get to hurting so bad that I'd just go home. I intended to deliver them the next day, but the next day my feet got to bothering me again and I just kept putting off part of my route. I didn't intend to keep the letters. I sincerely intended to deliver them but they just kept piling up and I got further behind."

The postman was tried and given a prison sentence. We would say he rightly deserved it, wouldn't we? We would have hated to be some of the people who failed to get their mail. Maybe some of the letters contained money that would have solved problems... or messages that no one else could bring.

You know, you and I have been entrusted with some letters and messages just as important to people. We have the message of salvation and the Bible with all kinds of messages of promise -

     "Come unto Me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest."

     "In My Father's house are many mansions.."

     "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

What message could be more important than holding back a message from God that He had entrusted us to take?

Will our excuse when we stand before the Great Judge be the same as the postman's? "My feet hurt...I was too busy ... I intended to take the message but I got so far behind .... There were so many I didn't see how I could get around to them all..."

Then the Great Judge will surely take those works of ours and burn them in the fire, and only those letters that were delivered will be saved and the others burnt, and we ourselves will be saved "so as by fire" -- no reward, not as many joys as we might have had if we had but delivered His message.

Next entry: "My Valentine"
Read about "The Word of God in My Life"
Read the first entry of my prayer life - "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep"

"A Rainy Fourth" - A Poem - by Gertrude Short - 1942

A Rainy Fourth

A Poem, By Gertrude Short

Another holiday has been ruined by rain once more;

A picnic lunch and a party had been planned for four.

But the clouds are still gathering and the rain still falls,

And the thunder is roaring loudly and lightning coming in fiery balls.

Faint in the distance I hear a train roaring down the track,

And the sound of a car engine grinding away -- wheels mud-packed.

The traveling is very bad;

But to think this thought I'm glad:

That our boys are not tramping in the rain

Fighting and dying for victory in vain.

One hundred and sixty-six years ago today

Our forefathers were down on their knees to pray.

That day a very sacred document was signed

Which ended a fear that cannot be defined.

Today the people of Europe hold that same fear,

But we're safe in a home with our loved ones so dear.

Let's not think of this day as spoiled by the rain,

But sing out our thanks in a joyous refrain!

This poem was published in my hometown newspaper, the Friona Star, in 1942.

Next entry: "Undelivered Letters" click here

I Will Never Leave You nor Forsake You

My Bible is "alive"! When it says "you" - that means "you"! All these things are promised to you. It says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you." (Matt. 6:33) When I first noticed this, I really started reading it like God wrote me a letter every day.

When we got our 2,000 acres of cotton hailed-out.... the crop that we thought was going to get us out of debt.... we went out to the farm to view the damage. We knew we had "gone broke". I came home crying and said to the Lord, "I've prayed over that crop and thought it was going to get us out of debt.... What is going on?"

I always went to the Word for my answer and I didn't know where to turn in the Bible. I opened my Bible and it opened to Hebrews 13, and my eyes fell on the 5th verse...like it was in darker print, and it said, "Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have, for He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'"

I was so shocked because it felt like He took me by the shoulder and shook me and said, "Don't be so anxious for money. Be content with what you have. Don't you know I'll never leave you nor forsake you?"

The boys came into the house with their wives and I said, "Boys, cheer up- let me tell you what He just said to me!" When I told them the promise I had just found in the Word, we all joined hands and began to thank the Lord. Jim had just gotten married and thanked the Lord for the privilege of working with his dad and brothers and he thanked Him for his wife. Each of us prayed and praised the Lord for what He had always done for us.

We knew that this was the end of this precious time of farming together as a family. We would have to have a farm sale and sell all the equipment and sell some land to pay our debts. 

The sale was a success, and we had just enough to pay the bank. But we still had a small business loan with the government of $100,000 we had made when we had gotten our cotton accidentally sprayed with poison that drifted over all our cotton a few years earlier. How would we pay that??

We had always sent our cotton to Littlefield to the Levi factory where they made denim cloth.We got more for it there than on the market, but we didn't know we were also given shares in the plant. That year, the denim plant sold, and we didn't know it, but a few days later we received a check for our share......$100,000!!  We were DEBT FREE!!! - What a relief!

Curtis turned 65 that same year, so he put our land into the CRP program (putting the land back into grass, and receiving a check from the government). Plus, he was able to start receiving Social Security. Our needs were met! Can the Lord take care of you?!! Oh, yes, He promised me that He would never leave us nor forsake us! 

Next entry: "A Rainy Fourth" click here

Read "The Word of God in My Life" by clicking here.

The Word of God in My Life

As a little girl my mother took me to church and I was taught Bible stories and the gospel message. I accepted Christ by faith and it was accounted to me as righteousness when I was 12 years old. As a teen and young adult I went to church but didn't grow much spiritually. However, I worked at a department store in town with a Christian lady, Melba Miller, and she would sometimes take me home with her and her husband, Ralph. They had a loving Christian home where the Bible was read and prayers were offered. I knew that this was the kind of home I wanted when I married.

However, when Curtis and I married we didn't go to church. We moved to Colorado, and while we lived there I realized how far I had strayed from the Lord. One morning I fell on my knees and re-dedicated my life to Him. [For the full account of that experience, click HERE] I went to the little church there and began to help in the children's classes. I found that I loved teaching the Bible stories. Also, I became so hungry to grow spiritually. I went to the pastor's wife and asked her if she would help and teach me the Bible. She turned up her nose and said, "No, I don't have time for that." I asked another lady, and she turned me down, too. I was on my own.

We moved back to Friona, Texas, after about a year. We faithfully went to church and sat under very good Bible-teaching pastors. I also discovered good teaching on radio programs like "Back to the Bible Broadcast" with Theodore H. Epp, and "Thru the Bible Radio Network" by Dr. J. Vernon McGee, who took me systematically through the Bible. I learned so much.

But then something happened that changed the way I read the Word. In the 1970s, one day I was burdened for a lady in my Sunday School class. I was kneeling by my bed praying for her, and I was totally immersed in a "fountain of love".  It was coming from the Lord, and it was so much that I couldn't contain it. I had to cry out to the Lord to stop it. It was an experience that filled me up to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. In a few days some trouble came into my life - an attack on me. I was accused of something I didn't do. I didn't understand what was happening! I didn't know where to turn except to the Word. I opened my Bible (and I had never had this happen before) and it opened to Luke 22:31. My eyes fell on "Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you..." My spirit quickened and it seemed that the Lord was saying this directly to ME. Sure enough, the sifting began as the rumor mills ground me down. The Lord allowed this trial so that I would run to Him.

I literally hid in the Word of God. I had never read the Psalms until then, and I began to pray David's prayers as my own prayers. I developed such a appetite for the Word that I could read and pray for hours. My hunger to read the Bible was like having chocolate cake sitting there, and I nibbled on it a piece at a time. I would be doing housework and walk by the Bible and long to open it to see what it said-- to ME!

From that time (1974 or 1975) I have had the sweetest times reading the Bible. The Living Bible came out about then and I devoured it. In the 1980s I discovered Precept Bible Studies by Kay Arthur. She taught me to inductively study and dig into the Word as never before. She encouraged us to get a New American Standard Bible, and I loved it because throughout, the pronouns referring to God or Jesus were capitalized - making it so clear. Now that I've read and understood the Bible, I've gone back to my King James Bible and it is understandable to me.

So I have experienced God's Word in two ways. I've studied and dug into the scripture for its literal, cultural and historical meaning, but my favorite experience in His Word is when I read and the Lord quickens that Word in my spirit and makes it mine. "That's for me!" my spirit says, and I claim it!

Praise God for His glorious Word! Sometimes I think He wrote it just for me!

Psalm 119:97 & 102-103
(New American Standard)

"Oh how I love Your law!

It is my meditation all the day.

......

I have not turned aside from Your ordinances,

For You Yourself have taught me.

How sweet are Your words to my taste!

Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"

Next entry - "I Will Never Leave You Nor Forsake You"
To start at the beginning of my journey with the Lord, Click HERE- "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep"

World War II - "Waiting"

When the United States entered WWII, Curtis' draft number was one of the first drawn. I wrote this poem to him before he left.

Waiting

Before you leave dear, I want you to know

That I'll be with you wherever you go.

I'll watch by the window and pray every night

That God will be with you as you go to flight.

I'll pray that he'll keep you safe from all harm

And bring you back quickly to stay in my arms.

Go out my dear loved one, be brave in your strife

To help bring the victory for peace, love and life.

We've dreams for the future that must not be broken,

But until you return our love is the token.

There'll be nights of waiting and watching in vain

For a word that you're safe will be a joyous refrain.

So darling remember while you're far away

I'm with you at heart and I pray every day.

Our dreams will unfold as the days pass along.

We'll be happy together and make a new song.

That home that we've planned, and the kids, one or two,

Will all come to pass and we'll never be blue.

We'll have a fireplace with flames burning bright

To help spread our happiness far out in the night.

These are the dreams you'll be fighting for right here.

Good luck, and God bless you, I love you my dear---

Gertrude Short

10/26/43

To read accounts of my early marriage click HERE and HERE.

Link to a follow-up poem, "Still Waiting" - click HERE

My Prayer Life - Part 13 - "God Answers - Big & Small Requests"

Part 13:

Our Carolyn (age 16) is learning to trust the Lord with her "big" problems and her "little" problems -- if we could decide which was which.

She had not had just a rush of dates during her junior year in school and had wanted to go with a certain boy for a long time. As the Junior/Senior banquet approached, she became more and more concerned as to who would ask her. One day I told her, "Let's just pray and ask the Lord to work this little matter out." She said, "Oh, Mama, do you really think He cares about something so little as this??" "Absolutely," I said. "He cares about every detail of our lives."

I prayed and told the Lord that Carolyn wanted to go with Christian boys and that she wanted to please Him in every way. I said, "Lord, she needs an escort to this banquet, and you know the boy she wants to go with, and that he is the finest of the bunch. She has chosen him and will you help him to choose her? I just leave it in Your hands, and thank You so much for the answer."

It was not many nights later that HE asked her to the banquet. She was as thrilled about the answer to our prayer as she was getting the date. Praise the Lord for answering little requests or big ones -- which is it? Thank You, Lord anyway!

Kevin & Carolyn's First Date

Addition to original: This turned out to be a BIG answer.... because that boy became her husband about five years later!

August 13, 1976

Next entry - "The Word of God in My Life"

My Prayer Life - Part 12 - "Letting Go"

Part 12:

I began to understand more about God--the Heavenly Father and His love for His children as my boys got into high school and college. I was staying on my knees more now and holding them up to the Lord. When I made their beds I would kneel and pray for that special child and the problem that he had that day -- they began to have many as they grew into teenagers and adults. When I ironed their clothes I talked to the Lord about that person whose garment I was ironing. When I washed the dishes I bathed my soul in prayer for whatever problem or joy that was on my heart. I don't know what parents and husbands and wives do who do not have the Lord to go to.

As Danny went to college we were so happy he chose Wayland Baptist College and was given a $1000 scholarship each year for running track.

Signing for WBC scholarship

He had been such a joy to us -- as were all of them -- but he was our first one and naturally everything he did was new to us. He became disturbed about his third year in college as he didn't know what direction he should go in his life. He was discouraged and even thought about quitting. His coach and teachers wrote us about encouraging him. I had taken it to the Lord in the mean time, and I asked Him to guide Danny in his life and show him what He had for him. I also said, "Lord, Danny is going to need a helpmate soon to steady his life and make him complete, and You know who she is. He doesn't, but would you please show him (and me) pretty soon?"

It wasn't very long until we went to Albuquerque to a track meet and he introduced us to this little "Linda Allen," and I remember putting my arm around her and loving her a little bit, and a warm feeling came into my heart. Every girl he had brought home from school until then I had thrown up a wall and found something I didn't like about her. I began to think that I was a possessive mother who would never be able to give up that son. I remember one day deliberately taking one of my aprons, cutting off the apron strings, putting them in an envelope, and mailing them to Danny at college to let him know that I was "cutting the apron strings." When it came time for me to give him to Linda, it was such an easy thing---because the Lord helps our love be a giving love.

Read the next entry in my prayer journey - "God Answers - Big & Small Requests"

My Prayer Life - Part 11 - "Surprise Blessing"

Part 11:

Our Jimmy came along as a sweet surprise to us and has been nothing but a blessing from the Lord all of his 14 years.

James Ross

His salvation experience came as no surprise to us as he had been asking questions. Talking about the Lord at our house was as common a thing as talking about Grandma or anyone else, so it was a natural thing. He was under conviction awhile before the Burton's left our church and Mildred (pastor's wife) prayed for him a lot. She said, "I just feel like Jimmy is going to accept the Lord just any time." But he was pretty young and I didn't want to press him.

Not long after the Burton's moved and Brother Ivaloy Bishop was our interim pastor, Jimmy went forward to accept Christ. Brother Bishop came out that afternoon to talk with him and ask him questions. He answered everything in a very satisfactory way. We praised the Lord that our last child had been born in the kingdom of God and praised His Name for such an abundant life He had given us. How could He love us so much?


Read the next entry in my prayer journey - "Letting Go"

My Prayer Life - Part 10 - "It's a Girl!"

Part 10:

Well now, let me back up, I've gotten ahead of myself as I tell my prayer experiences. When Danny and Joe were  small, we were busy helping take care of my mom, whose cancer had returned after 10 years or so. I had suddenly gotten sick, and found out one of my ovaries was hemorrhaging and I would have to have emergency surgery to have it removed. I remember telling Dr. Spring not to take everything, because I wasn't through having my family. He winked and said, "Okay, I'll leave the "girl" side!"

My mother died on Joe's 5th birthday. Our days of caring for her were over and about a year later, another prayer was answered and our little girl was born. We had not asked the Lord for a little girl especially, but you know the Lord says, "You shall have life and have it more abundantly." The Lord had blessed our life with two fine boys, who were 9 and 6, so what could be more abundant than giving us a daughter?

When I came out of the delivery room back into my room, Curtis came in just beaming. We felt we should thank the Lord right then and there, so we held hands and prayed with tears of joy streaming down our faces, and we gave her to the Lord that very first hour of her life.

Carolyn Kay

I had such a closeness with the Lord as I went home and rocked my baby and sang "prayers" to the Lord for her lullabies. I prayed selfishly one prayer--that I would be the one to bring her to the Lord in salvation experience.

That prayer was answered about nine years later. One night in a revival meeting she was sitting with Debbie and Mildred Burton, and I was on the other side of the church. I could not find her as I searched the church with my eyes. I felt the Holy Spirit so strong that night and I knew He must be dealing with Carolyn. I said, "Oh Lord, please don't let her go forward until I've had a chance to talk to her. You know I've asked You to let me be the one to lead her."

The invitation time closed and we went home. Curtis had some kind of meeting that night and didn't come home with us. As I went in to tuck Carolyn in for the night, I leaned down to kiss her, and she put her arms around my neck and said, "Oh, Mama, I know I'm a sinner 'cause I've told stories and done so many things I shouldn't." I said, "That's wonderful!" She had a surprised look on her face because she thought I would be mad that she had told lies and done things she shouldn't. I continued, "You've already completed the first step to being saved --- you've realized you're a sinner and have admitted it. Now Jesus says if we believe in Him and confess our sins He will forgive us. So if you want to, you can just kneel down by your bed and ask Him to forgive you and to come into your heart." She jumped out of bed and knelt, and prayed the sweetest prayer I've ever heard -- asking God to forgive her and asking Jesus to come in. Then she jumped up and threw her arms around my neck and said, "Oh, Mama, I feel so much better! I feel like a load has been lifted off me!"

We went in to tell her big brothers and they rejoiced and we waited up to tell Daddy. It was one of the sweetest family times we ever had as the boys recalled when Carolyn was born and how excited they were when they got up on Sunday morning to have Daddy call and say they had a new baby sister.

She's always been our "Sunday child." She's always liked to go to church. She has felt the Lord dealing with her many times since she has become a teenager. She is 16 now and sings, "He Touched Me" and you know He has as it makes cold chills every time she sings it.


Read the next entry in my prayer journey - "Surprise Blessing"

My Prayer Life - Part 9 - "A Son Goes to War"

Part 9:

A few days before Joe left for Viet Nam

God did answer that prayer (previous post) many years later just before Joe went overseas to Viet Nam. I was so troubled and torn up with the thought of sending my boy off to war, maybe to be captured by a ruthless enemy who could break his spirit and cause him to deny Christ, or maybe to lose his life. Mothers have a way of looking on the bad side of things when it comes to her children. I began to pray that the Lord would just let me know about my boy. I was so disturbed and torn up I couldn't think of anything else. One day before he left, I was sitting in my chair reading my Bible. I began to cry and pray, and I raised my hands toward heaven and said, "Lord, Your Word says to lift up holy hands to you, and I lift mine up through the blood of Jesus Christ because that is all the holiness I have. I ask you now to take Joe and keep him, and give me peace in my heart and strength to bear whatever You have for us... In Jesus' Name I pray."...

...and...

the Holy Spirit fell on me in such a mighty way. A peace came flowing over me and it felt like it went from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. I was so happy and relieved! I just praised the Lord! I knew what the scripture meant when it said, "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace...." I experienced it there on my knees.


Read the next entry in my prayer journey - "It's a Girl"