FOUNDATIONS

Well, it that time of the year again.  Valentines Day or as we call it around our house the anniversary of our wedding.  This year is number 28.  Does the phrase "time flies when you're having fun" mean anything to you?

Hubbard Properties and Keva's sister Kristi,  has once again blessed us by allowing us to use the fantastic condo in Orange Beach.  Keva just mentioned how peaceful and quiet it was here.  Imagine a graveyard.  It's February and we are the only people here under the age of 102.

This is our second day here and we have passed the time, shopping, sight-seeing, reading, napping and walking on the beach.  Today we found a place that we have not been before so we decided to check it out.  It is actually a part of the Alabama State Park property on the East side of Perdido Bay.  We parked our car in the parking area and begin walking down a very beautiful elevated walkway that winds across the sand dunes and down to the beach. 

Although yesterday was quite warm and pleasant, today proved to be very breezy to say the least.  20 knot winds whipped the sugar white sand across the boardwalk.  The water was so blue that it was difficult to distinguish between the gulf and the sky when they meet on the horizon. 

As we walked God sort of whispered something to me and taught me a life lesson.  I'll share it with you.   As you can understand, when we walked in the sand the walking was often difficult.  The sand shifted beneath our feet.  Walking was slow and tiresome.  But when we reached the  boardwalk there was a firm walk-way and our travel was more pleasant and our steps more steady.  There was no slipping and sliding around because we walked on a secure "highway" if you will. 

Almost 62 years ago a young man and his wife had a son.  They were not rich.  They were not the pillars of the community.  They simply worked hard and tried to keep body and soul together.  But when the son was born they determined to bring him up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord".  So they begin by taking him to a little church and made sure that he had a firm foundation.  They laid that foundation by teaching him, leading him and providing an example before him that he could follow. 

There were others that helped to lay that foundation as well.  I remember men who pastored that little church.  Some were well educated men.  Others were not so wise in the eyes of academia but oh, so educated in the ways of God. Some of the names that I remember were John Thompson, Lee Davis, C.L. Ishee, A.M. Pruitt, Paul J. Stewart, Bob Seay, Bill Nicholes, John Osburn and many more.  These men stood before me each week and preached the word of God.  They also became my friend.  They cared for me.  They attended my ball games and my birthday parties.  I even remember one of them down in the floor with me on Christmas Day helping my Dad put a race track together and then playing with it all morning long.

What were they doing?  Pastoring a church? Yes, but much more than that.  They were driving down pilings, nailing together boards, joining one plank to another to form a pathway for an impressionable kid.  It was a firm pathway. 

It is important, fathers and mothers, to lay down a firm foundation for your children to walk upon.  Oh, I am sure that from time to time they will stray from the path.  Their feet will begin to sink in the shifting sands of education, culture, popularity and the like but there will always be a foundation which they will remember and which will provide a highway for them to travel. 

Isaiah 35: 8 puts it this way: "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

I don't know if those who are in heaven know or even care what's going on down here.  I have no idea if God allows them to be cognizant of what we say and do and think.  But if that is possible I just want to say "thank you", not only to my Dad and Mom but to all those "saints" who worked so hard to provide that foundation.  I want you to know, I'm walking on the road you laid out before me.  My feet are on solid ground and my journey has been made better because of the faithful work you preformed.