Listen more than you Speak

April 5, 2018

Psalm 34:12-22

“What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good?  Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.  Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.  The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.
The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.  When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.  The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.  He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.  Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.  The Lord redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.”

As I read verse 13-14, thoughts of my dad came to me, for he lived by this truth, and often told us and others, if you cannot say something good about the person say nothing at all.  My dad played football for two years in college, and back then, the good player played both offense and defense, and I’m not sure why he never finished college.  But this I witnessed, both of his knees would swell up, and he would wrap them in ace bandages and walk to work.  Dad worked in a plant as a boiler operator and thirty-one year’s later died in that plant of a massive heart attack.  He never complained, and yet it was clear that he believed that was the only way he could support his family.  My mother was often sick when we were young, and dad had three children and worked shifts.  If he was not working at that job or selling uniforms to anyone that would buy one, he was at the Miller High School practice field watching and visiting with the coaches and players. 

He would have been a great coach in that football was one of his passions, and he was a good teacher.  My dad loved people and served the Lord as a teacher and servant, and I’m sure of this, his children never understood or honored dad as we should have.  I am so sorry that the first time I told him I loved him was two weeks before he died, but today he is on my list of heroes.

The more thought I give to this Psalm the more my thoughts go to my dad, he never had much in material goods, in fact, I was shocked when I was told what his yearly income was after working for 31 years at the same place.  But he was rich in doing for others; my pastor often says to his staff, 90% of ministry is just showing up in times of need; my dad showed up.

With that said in honor of my dad, my thoughts go to the foundation; he built his life on a firm foundation, Jesus Christ.  As a child and a teenager, we feared him and mother more than we loved them, and both at that time had trouble showing affection.  But, all three kids, each very different, came away with the foundation dad and mothers life was built on, honest, hard work, and caring for others, doing good and standing against evil.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice