Encouragement…A Letter From My Father

This will be a short letter so I will write two….but keep in mind that the first letter was in March because in February I had the worst case pancreatic problems….from drinking, no gall stones. I was in the infirmary ward for a week, and then in the, I suppose, the regular rooms for another week and half. It was mandatory to starve me other than  this yellow weird bag going into all the other IV’s I was on. I didn’t eat for one week and 3 days. They had to train my digestive system to eat again…..I lost February.   Mimi, You are my favorite daughter! (im his only daughter 🙂 I just wanted to send you a little encouragement . Here’s  an on spot to help with a few things that you may need. ($20 bucks!)  Don’t be discouraged, look to the future and pick yourself up and go girl….as soon as you feel like it! You’ve got talent, ability, and charisma. (The he drew a little image, if was two lines at a point reaching out like how you draw a road, but sideways. It said “past” at the point and the word “future” at the other side, the bigger……It’s like a flashlight!) God is still waiting on you- He never moved! I love you as always, Pop (Next letter from Father) August 16, 2012

Hello Daughter! Surprised to get a hand written note from your dad? It’s a lost art eh? Just thinking of you this evening and decided to pen youa letter. My hands don’t work as well as they used to, but age and time catches us all. Wish we could talk more and see you more often. I do miss you frequently wonder what you might be doing at any given moment. I spend lots of time in the fields and woods on the tractor and in my minds eyeI can see you it warms me in my heart. Time is becoming our enemy in many a way, as it robs us of events of being family. We have to do better at that!I don’t mean to make you sad, I really just wanted to tell you I love you and that I’m proud of you. I hope you are happy often and laugh some. Life can be so crazy and I’ve learned that most negative things are more negotiable when I realize that 99% of them are really not as bad as they seem once it arrived. We worry or fret, but when the dreaded thing passes, from the rear view, it looks benign. OH well, I’m being long on philosophy tonight. Just try to be happy MImi. Find peace  in some way  and take time to yourself to be alone and quiet time. to focus in on the “still small voice of God” I recently discovered discovered a bit of paper had written on many years ago. I simply said, “Let peace rule, look for peace in the oneness of God. Our minds fit His mind and we are one in the mind of Christ. His mind and we are one. The mind of Christ! Clean up the past! Thereis no disappointments in Christ!” She had been reading in Colossians 3-5 My past is what it was, oh I mad some doozycal mistakes and I realized Christ forgave me for my foolishness and has used me in spite of it. Yet so often I fear I have failed in manifold ways. As a son, a Christian, a husband, and a father. Shoulda coulda woulda! But its not right now those things matter. What is may attitude towards God now? I want to honor Christ and seek his will for my life even at 63. I may be preaching an revival at 1st Baptist Hemingway. Near Myrtle Beach in October. Been a while…but I want to do it if I can and be led by the spirit. Pray for your old daddy, that I will have strength and health to keep on. I’ve been so worried about Deb (mom) I cried and wallered like a baby when I had to leave her overnight at the hospital.We could have lost her Mimi, for real. Another woman on her hall died that night after having the same procedure. I love her so much it hurts…after 41 years! (now 43yrs:)  Well maybe there will be more letters later. Just know how much I love you too. Bone of my Bone, Flesh of my Flesh. Come walk in the woods!

Popmy husband is closest on the left daddy in the red, my brother and then uncle