A few days ago, one of my daughters took me to a doctor’s appointment near Knoxville. Of course, when we got through, we had to do a little shopping. I am not a “shopper.” I usually always get ingredients from a grocery store that I need or will need for future recipes. Like everyone in this difficult day and time, I try to be careful.
If you grow up in a coal camp, being careful is usually a natural part of your habit concerning spending money. The coal company I am referring to had a 33% mark-up. As I have stated before, a song by Tennessee Ernie Ford told the story, “I owe my soul to the company store.” Of course, that is another story for the future.
Back to my original thought, as we were putting our groceries in the car, we noticed one of the back tires was low. And it was raining, very cool, and the wind was blowing. Here, we find me, an 85-year-old, and a daughter wondering what would be our next step. In days gone by, you could go to almost any gas station, and someone would help you.
What we did find very close to where we were was a station where you could “buy air.” Imagine that. There is one thing wrong with this story. The machine took the money but did not produce any air. Two very nice men came to our aid. They couldn’t get it to work. They told us about a place nearby that would fix the tire, and they followed us until we got to the station.
The two nice men didn’t know they were our “guardian angels.” This sure made me think of how we are told in God’s word, the rain falls on the just and unjust, and we will have problems, even if we have troubles and trials. The good news is, if we trust Him, he will help us through them all.
As I look back over the years, I am so thankful for the many situations I knew that happened in our lives (my family) that no one knew an answer but our Heavenly Father.
I love the scripture: ask, seek and knock. It works! He knows what we need, but He doesn’t force anything on us. He instructs us to ask and to be fervent about it.
One of my favorite scriptures is so often seemingly ignored — Ephesians 4:32. What a plan. That would keep us all on the right path if we followed it.
If we can keep that attitude, there will be someone to help us.
As many of us experience, in my youth, there was much contention in our family. I remember in my early teens, I tried to be a diplomat. I didn’t realize at the time, of course, that was my nature. I wanted everyone to be happy and to get along, be peaceful, not quarrelsome. Sometimes I would joke or cut up, to hide my true feelings. I have shared before when I accepted Christ at age 19, He gave me a genuine, merry heart. Proverbs 17:22. The second part of that verse, “but a broken spirit drieth up the bones,” do you think that is what makes some so unhappy? When all they had to do is ask, seek and knock, it goes along with John 3:16. It is our decision.
God bless (and bless our guardian angels).
Pearl Harper has written the Spiritually Speaking column in the LaFollette Press for decades.
