Today I Love Trustworthy
A few weeks ago I told my sweet seventh graders a couple of
stories. They bear repeating today. We had just begun talking about our next memory
verse, Revelation 21:4-5: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more
death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed
away. He who was seated on the throne said, “I am
making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are
trustworthy and true.
I actually have a couple of stories to go with that particular
verse, but on that particular day I had just had to be pretty stern with a
student prior this discussion. I opened
with this question, “What does this word in our verse, trustworthy, really mean
to you?” They answered basically that it
meant that if you said you were going to do something, you could be counted on
to do that very thing…that your actions matched your words. I followed with this question, “Do you guys want
trustworthy?” Many of them said, yes,
they wanted trustworthy. They wanted to
BE trustworthy and they wanted the people in their lives to be
trustworthy. I asked them if they were
sure. They again said yes. I asked them if they remembered me telling
them the rules in the beginning of the year and the certain things that would
earn them some negative consequences.
Were they absolutely sure that they wanted me to be trustworthy when it
came to them getting in “trouble”? One sweet
girl put it all in perspective. (I can’t
quote her exact words, but this is her basic message.) “When someone is trustworthy, you have to be
able to count on them for good and for bad…even when it hurts.” And thus came the stories…
Once upon a time there was a young foolish high school girl who
shall remain nameless (cough!me!cough!), who was all full of herself and eager
to impress her friends. One bright sunny
morning as she and her friend were standing waiting for the school bus and
chatting as young foolish high school girls will do, neither of them happened
to notice that the school bus had indeed pulled up, stopped, and was just
getting ready to pull away again. Upon
noticing this near tragedy, the young foolish high school girl who shall remain
nameless was shocked and surprised to such a degree that a particular four
letter word…a foul four letter word…came slipping right out of her mouth. Now, it just so happened on this bright and
sunny morning that the young foolish high school girl’s good hardworking father
just happened to not have left for work yet…and he heard that particular foul
four letter word slip right out of her young foolish mouth. He protested mightily, as good hardworking
fathers will do, but the young foolish high school girl and her friend were
running to catch the bus. That would
have been the end of that story had the young foolish high school girl not been
oh so very full of herself that she felt it necessary to mouth off to the good
hardworking father later that night. At
that point the good hardworking father rewarded the young foolish high school
girl with a quick smack right across the mouth…as good hardworking and
TRUSTWORTHY fathers will do! Needless to
say, the young foolish high school girl quickly broke the habit of letting foul
four letter words slip out of her young foolish mouth!
Fast forward about a year and the young foolish high school girl
was now home with a most vile and despicable bout of the stomach flu. Who was right by her side, but the good hardworking
father? It just so happened that this
particular day was the day that the young foolish high school girl’s class ring
was to be delivered at school. The good hardworking
father left her side just long enough to go to the store for 7-Up, but of
course returned with the class ring as well, as good hardworking and
TRUSTWORTHY fathers will do!
Fast forward many many years later and the married and a little
bit wiser but still quite young girl and her Man had just suffered a
miscarriage. Her Man called the good
hardworking father to inform him of the sad news. The good hardworking father asked if he
should come to be with the married and a little bit wiser but still quite young
girl. She was a grown up now and though
she could not bear to talk to the good hardworking father on the phone, she
told her Man to say, no, she would be fine.
Approximately one hour later, whose shoulder should she be crying into,
but her good and hardworking father’s, who though he was told no, came anyway…as
good hardworking and TRUSTWORTHY fathers will do!
Yes, my friends…we do want TRUSTWORTHY in our lives...for good
times and for times when we need corrected.
In early 1977, My Ol’ Man became both good hardworking and TRUSTWORTHY father
and mother to all four of us…whether he wanted the job or not. He met the challenge head on, correcting us
when we needed it, loving us through it all, trusting us when we proved
trustworthy, suspicious of us when we proved sneaky, suffering a bit of high
blood pressure in the process, and, I think, surviving the whole process quite well. My Ol’ Man is to this day, the best good
hardworking and TRUSTWORTHY father a girl could ever desire.
Happy Mother’s Day, Ol’ Man…I love you!
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