Afternoon all, I have been sitting here thinking on the word "Faith"...and it appears to me that word has a lot to say about what we have and where our folks have brought us. "Faith of our fathers"...more than a hymn... it is in a mouth full telling in a few simple words why I can sit here tonight and write whatever I wish for you tomorrow, why you have the freedom to talk to anyone on earth you wish to at the click of a button, why you can walk out your door tomorrow and worship where you please, or if you choose not to, you can do that too. That is a scary word to some folks..."faith"...and you know why? Well because Faith can do things nothing else can do. You get a bunch of folks having faith together and they can do things they can't do otherwise. They can cross seas in a ship that creaks and groans, leave all but the stronger ones buried below in the sea, drink bad water and eat the same spoiled fare, and still keep moving, still keep dreaming, still keep hoping. You get a bunch of folks having Faith together and they can pick up their meager bits of weaponry and outfight the strongest nation on earth and declare their independence, and go on to build a stronger one. You get a bunch of folks having Faith together and they can leave their folks behind and their loved ones buried and the place where they dug their roots, had their first dreams, and they can take their few belongings and look toward a different horizon and begin again, knowing even as they do it they will leave pieces of their heart buried on the trail. You get folks with Faith and they know their hearts are going to heal and they will be stronger than the day they started out. You get folks with Faith and they can love and lose, bury their loved ones way before it was time, take the lickings life gives them, work wearily from sunup to sunset with no promises, and still have a gleam in their eyes and a spark in their hearts. Folks don't have faith and they shrivel up, they lack courage, life hands em the things life hands us all and with every handout they lose a little bit more of their gusto, something dull covers their eyes like cataracts, something tough and impenetrable starts growing over their hearts, life gets to looking like one long black tunnel with no glimpse of light, and then one day they just take a breath and that is all of it. But now, with faith, it is a different story, and a man might go down but he goes down with a shout on his lips and a shine in his eyes. And that shout and shine stirs others to pick up where he left off, again and again, until a dream is won. Yup, folks who want to take the wind out of the sails of a group know good and well the last thing they want that group to have is Faith. Scary word. Faith built this country and is still inscripted upon our currency. Faith is the reason we have it, and Faith is what drove our ancestors to carve out a life for themselves and a future for us. We live in some days where there are a lot of folks who don't want us to have Faith. We get a leader and the first thing done is to find the dirt and tear them down. And there is the good in that and the bad in it. We hear a lot about bad times and bad things and how things are moving downhill fast, and we all hear a ring of truth in that... but maybe one of the worst things is that we hear more of that sort of thing than we hear of nobility and idealism. Seems to me that is just what the folks who are afraid of that word "Faith" want. That may seem simplistic, but it was noble and idealistic thoughts that actually made our folks STRONG. Looking neither right nor left. My uncle who gave his life in the first World War left as his only legacy a series of letters.... not one moan, not one groan, not one complaint, not one whine in those letters. Nothing but the statement repeated throughout them, right up until the day that he wrote his last one, that he was doing what he had to do, what he was committed to doing, that he trusted the Lord had put him where he was supposed to be in life, and I believe the noble words he wrote went like this, "Old Glory, the red, white and blue, I will stand by her and I will die by her." He did. The older I grow the more I turn to the very simple adages my family repeated throughout the years...things like "honesty is the best policy", "if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything". And the older I grow the more the truth of few words rings sound and real. No amount of education, and I guess I have more of that than any person has a right to, has never given me the truths for living life as much as the simple adages that were mine whether I got an education or not. No book, no matter who wrote it or how acclaimed it is, has ever stood me in such good stead as the fine principals of the greatest book of all. No experiences anywhere I have ever traveled have ever taught me as much as I have learned right here in my own home among my own folks. And it is all about something very simple. Faith. Stand tall and firm and we may not leave our next generations a lot materially, but we will leave a much stronger legacy that will insure their survival more than money ever would. just a thought, jan John 3:16 Listowner: [email protected] [email protected] A 1999 Stewart Co Santa (HO, HO, HO!!! and thanks!) Listowner: [email protected]