"My Presents" . . . and Their Future

Who doesn't love opening presents . . . and wrapping them!!!  I have a daughter-in-law who loves to wrap her presents with many pieces of tulle, lace and satin ribbons.  I get so excited when I open up a present she means for me.  I don't even sit down! It's all in the packaging.

I was thinking about all the various presents I have been blessed with over my lifetime.  More than anything, as a mother, my heart is forever entangled with those four hearts I delivered starting 47 years ago.

My sons and daughters have grown to be the parents of my 8 grandchildren.  They are now experiencing the joys and challenges raising their 6 sons and 2 daughters . . . so much of what I experienced.  These baby lives develop so quickly that before realization comes. . . they are grown.  How did I care for my presents . . . gifts from God?  I didn't realize that at the time, but now, because of His grace, I know he had a purpose and a plan for my life as he does for my children and my grandchildren . . . as He has for all His creation.

What do we know about unwrapping a present?  We can't just lift it up and toss it to the four winds and exclaim, "Isn't that so pretty!!!!"  We can't let our present float away into the air be stuck on a limb somewhere.


               Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old 
                         he will not depart from it.     Proverbs 22:5-7   NAS


But where is that guide . . . my instruction book????


                           God'd Word . . . The Holy Bible



 ¹ If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
 ² And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
 ³ And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
 ⁴ Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
 ⁵ doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil;
 ⁶ rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth;
 ⁷ beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
 ⁸ Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.
 ⁹ For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
 ¹⁰ but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.
 ¹¹ When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things.
 ¹² For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.
 ¹³ But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
                                                                                                                      I Corinthians 13        NAS

This is a beautifiul portion of Scripture...very particularly as I am seeking to improve my own personal life.  Good to review from time to time.

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Pine Needles

Up the road from the house in Beaver was a hill laden with pine trees.  Wanda and I used to go up there and then slid down, rolling and laughing...sometimes screaming when we got stuck with the needles.  Wanda was several years older than I, but we were good friends and kept in touch for years.  Her parents did not have dentures, but they had no problem chewing a good piece of meat!

When I was there a few years ago with Renee and her boys, Chase and Ross, we saw that the hill area had been dug out and a filling station/garage occupies that corner.  On the right, past the filling station, is a cemetery where many of the Lilly family are buried.  I know Mom's parents,  John and Mary Griffith Lilly are there; also, Mom and Dad.  Alongside the cemetery is the Primitive Baptist Church.  I wonder if it is still standing.

Across the road was where I would go to find Dad when supper was ready.  He let me sit on his lap at the bar and sip a little of the foam from his beer.  I giggled...he thought it was funny, too.  It took a while for him to budge.  Rarely Mom would have a couple of relatives or friends for dinner.  She let me help set the table.  My particular idea was to place a toothpick at each plate.

Meals were cooked on the coal burning stove.  Managing the temperature to cook everything to such wonderful goodness took special skill.  Mom also heated the irons to keep the starched whites looking brand new.  Her washer was on the enclosed back porch...the clothes had to be washed, rinsed and then put through the wringer.  Mom carried the loads out back and hung them out.  I stuck my hand in the wringer once...nearly pulled my arm off, "they say." The rain barrel was just under the down spout from the roof; it seemed to always have enough for Mom to scoop out to water the vegetables and flowers.

Saturday night was bath night; when I was very little the big, old galvanized tub came out.  Water heated on the stove filled the tub...I was bathed first; then anyone else who wanted to took theirs.  Actually, the kids had all grown up by then; the boys were in the Service and the girls were either married or working. Melba was divorced about when I was born.  So, since I had been weaned, she went to Huntington to Beauty Culture School.  She found a room to live in and got a job doing hair and nails.

Iron Skillets, Biscuits, Gravy . . .

A plate of opened biscuits, thick slices of tomatoes all spread with the white chicken gravy . . . not a better breakfast anywhere!  Skillets of crusty, golden cornbread to stuff in a big glass of buttermilk!  The best afternoon snack.  Picnics . . . everything laid out on a sheet or the like.  Pots of homegrown green beans cooked with a slab of fat back, platters of fried chicken (freshly killed and dressed), tomatoes to slice...and cakes and pies for all the family who could come.  

The men wore their dress pants, white shirts...Dad wore his straw hat  and polished white shoes.  Mom and the the women wore nice dresses. (Mom always polished her shoes before she went anywhere. ) I was about two; I wore a dress and a diaper.

Imagine growing all your vegetables and chickens and actually cooking from scratch!  Mom ordered flour and meal which came in sacks.  When the sacks were empty, she used the fabric to make her aprons, which she wore all the time.  When she needed to, she bought on credit at the general store down the road; however, she never ran up debt.

As the war escalated, the people were encouraged to grow "Victory Gardens."  Mom needed no prodding for that.  She always had the ground plowed; then she would hoe and rake and plant everything.  When her vegetables started to come in, she started canning.  There was also a grape arbor which soon became our grape jam.  The wooden shelves in the pantry were laden with Mom's canning . . . sufficient for the winter.

Ella Mariah was a beautiful woman to me.  She was my constant companion for twelve years, my caregiver, my best friend . . . my grandma, my mother.  I loved her.