Born in Poverty with the Riches of the Kingdom

Born in Poverty

with the Riches of the Kingdom

My Mom and Dad gave me the greatest thing.

It wasn’t my first toy, a little vinyl Scottish dog.

It wasn’t the parakeet or rabbit.

And it certainly wasn’t the dress

they brought me home from the hospital in.

Read the devotional to find out what it was.

My Mom and Dad were at Piedmont Baptist College

preparing for the ministry when I was born.

Born a Tar Heel, Mom and Dad lived in a little trailer on campus.

They lived each day with expectation of God meeting the daily needs.

Not much room in the trailer for a crib, they could not afford,

they made my bed in a dresser drawer.

Dad and Mom brought me back to Toledo

where they started a store front church on the east side,

where this little PK (preacher kid) got a lot of loving.

I don’t remember much,

but I do remember the trombone player

and sitting on his lap after worship.

In the 5^th grade,

I learned how to play the trombone

even though I could not reach the 6^th position.

I remember one day seeing my dad

pull up in front of the house driving a taxi

to make ends meet.

As I look back I don’t remember having much,

but catching praying mantas

and putting them in the milk box

and playing with my rabbit was a lot of fun.

My brother, Dan and I told my brother, Mike

that the rabbit droppings were raisins

and one morning there was Mike sitting under the rabbit cage;

You guessed it - he was eating those little round rabbit droppings.

There was a day when we had a special speaker come to

the store front church, who we knew as the “man of God.”

We were sitting at the table after the Sunday morning service,

everyone acted as if God was sitting in front of us.

I could tell I was not the only one nervous.

We made it through the dinner and it was

time for some homemade pumpkin pie

(the only way it was made in those days).

My mother got the can of whip cream

and approached the man of God’s slice of pie,

who was dressed in the finest suit I had ever seen

and ready to preach at the evening service.

My mother pressed the nozzle and the whip cream hit the pie

and then reflected up onto the man of God’s suit, shirt and tie.

No one laughed like you are doing now.

Fear and terror struck up; all I knew is I

must not move an inch as my mom and dad

panicked to clean up the man of God.

I don’t remember feeling poor as I grew up, but I do

remember feeling like I was God’s favorite in the earth.

My parents started me out in such a way

that I knew God as my best friend.

My parents, if they had owned the whole world

could not have given me anything more valuable.

Thank you Mom and Dad!

Scripture Reading

Proverbs 22:6 NIV

6 Train a child in the way he should go,

and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Deuteronomy 4:9-14 NIV

9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live.

Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

10 Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb,

when he said to me, "Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children." 11 You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it

blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.

12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire.

You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.

13 He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments,

which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets.

Deuteronomy 11:16-21 NIV

16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away

and worship other gods and bow down to them.

17 Then the LORD's anger will burn against you,

and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.

18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds;

tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home

and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,

21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land

that the LORD swore to give your forefathers,

as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.