Pearl Roark

Before we start, I want to just say, I love this family. The more of you I meet, the more attractive your family becomes. You may be thinking well John was the first one in the family you met, so it could only get better.

But that’s not it. It is because how I would describe your family as a whole is with two words:

Uncomplicated and genuine....

They are attributes that are found far too infrequently in today’s time.

They are also attributes that don’t happen by chance.

Proverbs 22:6 NASB95

6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

You are who you partly because Peal Roark poured herself into you.

Dinner

I am told that no matter what time you showed up at Ms. Roark’s home, you were going to eat.

Not fast food or store bought meal, but made from scratch home cooking.

She would lay out a full spread, and in her eyes, “It’s not much”. but in your eyes and your stomach, it was the world!

Making a good life, in a lot of ways is like making a good meal.

Right Ingredients

If you want to make biscuits, you have to have the right kind of flour.

If you want to build a good life, you have to have the right character.

Strength

Mrs Roark was tough and strong. We raised two kids and we were exhausted most of the time. She raised nine. There is a difference between having kids and raising kids, and I’m told she raised her kids. She taught her children to be self reliant and hard working just like her. She grew her garden, made clothes, canned....As a child in the great depression, nothing went to waste.....food, cloth or words.

Chopping cotton is hard work, but chopping cotton while carrying a baby is another level of toughness. People aren’t made that way anymore.

I’m told she would praise you when you did right and when you did wrong, there was a wooden spoon. You ask to be passed food, you don’t reach!

Joy

Robert Lewis Stevenson wrote:

Find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all.

Mrs Roark found Joy in feeding others, Joy in getting together with her family, Joy in sitting with her sisters and making quilts, and Joy in cane pole fishing.

What ingredients not to add

You can’t substitute Salt for sugar in a a pie. They may look similar, but they are not interchangeable.

Likewise, making a life worth living means some things don’t belong.

Mrs. Roark didn’t like vulgar things.

She was not disrespectful to others, and wouldn’t tolerate disrespect.

Terry told me the most remarkable thing about his mom…He said he never heard her say anything bad about anyone.

I was told, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything.” But it’s a rare thing to see that lived out.

Heat

The final act of cooking a meal is applying heat. Turning up the temperature to transform mixed ingredients into a complete dish.

In the same way, a life worth living will include suffering.

Speaking to his disciples in John 16, Jesus said this:

John 16:33 NASB95

33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

Mrs. Roark knew tribulation.

Losing your parents and grandparents is part of the natural order of things.

Losing a spouse changes a person, losing a spouse with young children is a different kind of tragedy.

Losing a child is unfathomable. Mrs. Roark lived long enough to see the loss of five children.

But know this: Charles Dickens wrote:

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.

Love

As we close, it is important to understand what separates home cooking to restaurant food.

The difference is home cooking is made with love.

And a life worth living is centered around love. Love for your family, love for your friends, and most importantly love for the One that created you.

The best sermons are lived not preached.

Mrs. Roark lived a sermon. Her faith is evident in her walk through this world. But know this, she is not in the presence of the Lord today because she lived a good life. Right now she would tell you, you can’t live good enough to go to heaven.

If you want to know the Joy of meeting again, that is by putting your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 14:6 NASB95

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.