Topic(s): Wisdom

Senior citizens are constantly being criticized, belittled, and sniped at for every conceivable deficiency of the modern world, real or imaginary. Upon reflection, I would like to point out that it was not the senior citizens who took:

• the melody out of music,
• the pride out of appearance,
• the romance out of love,
• the commitment out of marriage,
• the responsibility out of parenthood,
• the togetherness out of the family,
• the learning out of education,
• the service out of patriotism,
• the civility out of behavior,
• the refinement out of language,
• the dedication out of employment,
• the prudence out of spending,
• the ambition out of achievement,
• and we certainly are not the ones who eliminated patience and tolerance from relationships. —Jerome J. Goldstein (submitted by Bill Kelly)

“Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD”—Leviticus 19:32

The Rich Family in our Church

Topic(s): Priorities

I’ll never forget one Sunday in 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy, 12, and my older sister Darlene, 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money. By 1946 my older sisters were married, and my brothers had left home.

A month before, the preacher announced that a special offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially. When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. Then we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn’t listen to the radio, we’d save money on that month’s electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1. We made $20 on pot holders.

That month was one of the best of our lives. Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we’d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so we figured that whatever money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the preacher had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.

The day before the “big day,” Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change. We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money. That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We could hardly wait to get to church.

When the offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of the girls put in a $20. As we walked home after services, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled eggs with fried potatoes!

Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn’t say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10, and seventeen $1. Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn’t talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash.

On Saturday Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn’t know. We’d never known we were poor. We didn’t want to go back Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was sunny, we didn’t talk. Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse.

We had a missionary who talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun-dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church building. The minister said, “Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people?” We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week. Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering. When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn’t expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, “You must have some rich people in this church.”

Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that “little over $100.” We were the rich family in the church. From that day on I’ve never been poor again. I know how rich I am in Jesus. —Eddie Ogan

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” — Philippians 4:19