my grandparents held two things higher than any other -- their families and God.
i realize that statement isn't mind boggling. but the way they held their families and God is mind boggling.
one thing i remember about the klafka side is that family was everything. my dad grew up on a farm with 4 sister and one brother. if your bad at math, that's six in the family. they were a good german catholic family.
as farmers, they didn't have much, but what they didn't have in money, they made up in family. i remember going over to my grandparents house as a kid for christmas and there being 50 people crammed in a little 3 bedroom house. it was incredible to feel love like that.
my mothers parents were amazing people as well. my grandpa leon was also a farmer. i actually grew up in the same town just a block away. i could literally see their front door from our porch. often on friday nights i would stay over at their house, wake before dawn drink coffee and eat breakfast, then it was time for me and grandpa leon to go to the cotton gin for more coffee and conversation with other farmers. after the sun came up it was off to the farm. most of the time i would just ride on the plow while my grandpa drove the tractor but occassionally i would get to drive.
both sets of my grandparents worked harder than any people i have ever met. they worked like every once of energy meant something. nothing was wasted. there was no down time for piddling around on the web, just good, hard work getting your hands dirty. maybe that's why i love manual labor so much. i love to get my hands dirtly.
what i noticed, even as a kid, was that at the end of the day what they were working their tail off for wasn't money, it wasn't their retirement savings, it was to give them enough for today.
at the end of the day, what mattered most to my grandparents were their families. it was the ones they loved that they held higher than anything else.
the other thing i noticed was their reverence and love for God.
it was nothing less than incredible.
my grandma leon read through the Bible, genesis - revelation, more times than i know. she wanted so badly to know God better. her faith was strong, stronger than i can tell you. it was like a pillar that stretched as high as i could see. and my granpa leon hardly ever went to church. i remember him saying that worship to him was watching the sun rise over the caprock. his sanctuary was the land in which he worked to produce a crop.
as i reflect, i wonder what made my grandparents different than most people today... i think it was what they went through. i believe it was the hardships in life that directed them to hold faith and family as the supreme focus.
both sets of my grandparents lived through the stretch of american history we call "the great depression". as i grew older, what i discovered was how this piece of their personal histories affected their core values in life.
they lived through a time that was dismal at best. i remember hearing my grandma leon tell me stories of how during the depression they didn't have anything and how the dust storms would come through and block out the sun. she told how the dust would fly through the cracks around window and door frames so they would stuff towels in them. she described how they would eat only what the farm produced, which wasn't much, so you ate everything it could give. nothing was wasted.
i could see pain and hardship behind her eyes as she told story after story with enthusiastic joy.
you see, she didn't hate God for the depression, she thanked Him.
it was the depression that focused their eyes and hearts on God, on family.
it was one of the worst times in american history that changed how my grandparents viewed the world. neither one of my grandparents had much when it came to their bank accounts, but they had an abundance of faith and love. they were overflowing with what truly matters.
i wonder why it takes dire circumstances to show us what is important?
we live life chasing the wind.
if your focus is more on the fleeting things of this world than on your God -- you've missed the boat.
if you knew you were going to die at the end of the day today, what would your focus be on today? i would guess it would be on your retirement.
it takes the valleys to help us see that what is important isn't worldly things but our God and people around us.
i got to hear about a couple this week who showed me perspective. he has been battling cancer and of course it has been hard on everyone. but when his wife was asked if she had wished he never had cancer, she said no.
"why did she say no", you might be wondering?
she said "no" because it was the cancer that strengthened their marriage. battling cancer helped them grow in faith. it was cancer that gave them a new outlook on what was important in life.
the hardest times are when God becomes most real to us.
alot of people are really worried about the economy and it's decline. i say, bring it on. maybe people in america will see that stuff doesn't matter. maybe our own great depression is what the american church needs to walk through.
our faith might come out stronger on the other side. what we hold higher than God might just take a back seat for a while.
today, remember what is most important in your life.
may you hold your faith high.
may your mind be focused on the pursuit of God.
may the love that is within you, burst forth on the ones closest.
may your eyes be opened to the reality of the Kingdom.
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i realize that statement isn't mind boggling. but the way they held their families and God is mind boggling.
one thing i remember about the klafka side is that family was everything. my dad grew up on a farm with 4 sister and one brother. if your bad at math, that's six in the family. they were a good german catholic family.
as farmers, they didn't have much, but what they didn't have in money, they made up in family. i remember going over to my grandparents house as a kid for christmas and there being 50 people crammed in a little 3 bedroom house. it was incredible to feel love like that.
my mothers parents were amazing people as well. my grandpa leon was also a farmer. i actually grew up in the same town just a block away. i could literally see their front door from our porch. often on friday nights i would stay over at their house, wake before dawn drink coffee and eat breakfast, then it was time for me and grandpa leon to go to the cotton gin for more coffee and conversation with other farmers. after the sun came up it was off to the farm. most of the time i would just ride on the plow while my grandpa drove the tractor but occassionally i would get to drive.
both sets of my grandparents worked harder than any people i have ever met. they worked like every once of energy meant something. nothing was wasted. there was no down time for piddling around on the web, just good, hard work getting your hands dirty. maybe that's why i love manual labor so much. i love to get my hands dirtly.
what i noticed, even as a kid, was that at the end of the day what they were working their tail off for wasn't money, it wasn't their retirement savings, it was to give them enough for today.
at the end of the day, what mattered most to my grandparents were their families. it was the ones they loved that they held higher than anything else.
the other thing i noticed was their reverence and love for God.
it was nothing less than incredible.
my grandma leon read through the Bible, genesis - revelation, more times than i know. she wanted so badly to know God better. her faith was strong, stronger than i can tell you. it was like a pillar that stretched as high as i could see. and my granpa leon hardly ever went to church. i remember him saying that worship to him was watching the sun rise over the caprock. his sanctuary was the land in which he worked to produce a crop.
as i reflect, i wonder what made my grandparents different than most people today... i think it was what they went through. i believe it was the hardships in life that directed them to hold faith and family as the supreme focus.
both sets of my grandparents lived through the stretch of american history we call "the great depression". as i grew older, what i discovered was how this piece of their personal histories affected their core values in life.
they lived through a time that was dismal at best. i remember hearing my grandma leon tell me stories of how during the depression they didn't have anything and how the dust storms would come through and block out the sun. she told how the dust would fly through the cracks around window and door frames so they would stuff towels in them. she described how they would eat only what the farm produced, which wasn't much, so you ate everything it could give. nothing was wasted.
i could see pain and hardship behind her eyes as she told story after story with enthusiastic joy.
you see, she didn't hate God for the depression, she thanked Him.
it was the depression that focused their eyes and hearts on God, on family.
it was one of the worst times in american history that changed how my grandparents viewed the world. neither one of my grandparents had much when it came to their bank accounts, but they had an abundance of faith and love. they were overflowing with what truly matters.
i wonder why it takes dire circumstances to show us what is important?
we live life chasing the wind.
if your focus is more on the fleeting things of this world than on your God -- you've missed the boat.
if you knew you were going to die at the end of the day today, what would your focus be on today? i would guess it would be on your retirement.
it takes the valleys to help us see that what is important isn't worldly things but our God and people around us.
i got to hear about a couple this week who showed me perspective. he has been battling cancer and of course it has been hard on everyone. but when his wife was asked if she had wished he never had cancer, she said no.
"why did she say no", you might be wondering?
she said "no" because it was the cancer that strengthened their marriage. battling cancer helped them grow in faith. it was cancer that gave them a new outlook on what was important in life.
the hardest times are when God becomes most real to us.
alot of people are really worried about the economy and it's decline. i say, bring it on. maybe people in america will see that stuff doesn't matter. maybe our own great depression is what the american church needs to walk through.
our faith might come out stronger on the other side. what we hold higher than God might just take a back seat for a while.
today, remember what is most important in your life.
may you hold your faith high.
may your mind be focused on the pursuit of God.
may the love that is within you, burst forth on the ones closest.
may your eyes be opened to the reality of the Kingdom.
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