Untitled Sermon (4)

Godly Parenting

I was raised. for the most part, by my Grandparents with the help of aunts and uncles. Like all families, we had our issues. The journey was bumpy, the path winding, and at times the situation was overwhelming. Financial insecurity was often the culprit. We were a poor family. We never lacked in food or the necessities, though at times it wouldn’t be unusual to have our electricity or water shut off temporarily.

My family was a hard working bunch, but most times the paychecks didn’t match the effort. We were on food stamps, we received government commodities. How many of y’all know what I’m talking about? That good ol government cheese and canned peanut butter was the good stuff. Then once a month we would buy a 50lb sack of potatoes from the Waters store. That’s where we developed our love of tater sandwiches and tater soup. I swear, my Grandma could work magic with very little. The food was always delicious and she could make it stretch to fill all of our bellies. If bank accounts matched bellies we would’ve been kings and queens.

I would wear hand me downs from my Uncle Steve. For reference he was 5’6” and weighed 180lbs, I, on the other hand was 6’0” tall and 250 by the middle school. Y’ll should have seen me back then- big as the door way with an afro that was too big, even for my overdeveloped noggin. I knew the hand me down arrangement had run its course in the 6th grade when I went to school wearing my Uncles Waylon Jennings t-shirt. I wore a 2XL comfortably, but this shirt was a large. I looked like a busted can of biscuits for real. I had rolls falling out the bottom, seams stretched and popped all day. If the rest of the school didn’t know I was broke, they figured it out that day.

Now, once a year, on Christmas we’d get a couple pairs of jeans, a shirt or two, socks, underwear, the necessities. And we’d try to make them stretch til the next Christmas.

To say there were a lack of “things” in our home would be an understatement. We didn’t have a lot of “things.”

But one thing we always had was some kind of connection to God. Whether it was church, a preacher coming by the house, a Christian telethon or television ministry on the tv, or just my Grandma sitting at the kitchen table reading her Bible and filling it full of her notes. Mostly prayers for our finances to get better and prayers for the members of our family. And even though, as a child, I wouldn’t say I had a knowledge of God I did have acknowledgment of God. I knew He was real, and while that doesn’t seem like a lot let me tell you, as an adult I look at the people who were brought up without having anyone talk to them, or even around them, about God and I can’t comprehend it.

How can you never talk about God?

I can’t imagine growing up in a house that never discussed, acknowledged, or believed in God.

When I was in kindergarten we had a Kids bring their dad to school day. I didn’t have a Dad present so I sat their alone while the other kids showed off their dads. The teacher sent me to the office and the principal pulled me into her office and asked, are you sad about not having your Dad here? I said no ma’am. She said it doesn’t bother you that you don’t have a Dad? I said but I do! I have a heavenly Father! She was shocked, she called my Grandma to tell her but my family wasn’t as shocked, shoot me and my sister would go to church and lay hands on people at 2-3 years old. We didn’t have all the knowledge but we KNEW who He was to us.

So to think there are children who don’t have that knowledge