Little pictures have big eyes

I met a great professional baseball player some time back; his name is Brett Butler. He has a fascinating story of triumph over many obstacles including even making it to the major leagues in the first place due to his small stature. He played for the Dodgers and later the Atlanta Braves and was an all star player and will undoubtedly make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He developed cancer in his throat and not only survived but thrived. He is a tremendous witness for Christ and he and his wife exemplify in my mind how Christians should act. I.e. they stand up and tell people unashamedly that they belong to Christ and give Him all the glory for their accomplishments. They accept the good with the bad and know beyond a shadow of a doubt there is a good purpose for everything that occurs, even events like Brett’s battle with cancer.

He gave me an autographed copy of his book and I have been reading it. It is inspirational. I believe the name of it is “Field of Hope”; unfortunately I left it in Atlanta on my nightstand and cannot verify that for you. If you are looking for a good read, buy this book. One story he related in the book was that a little kid was at the ballpark one day and Brett observed him putting smokeless tobacco in his mouth. Brett asked him why and he indicated that he did it because Brett did it and he wanted to be just like Brett. Brett stopped using smokeless tobacco right then and there. He really felt bad about this, not wanting to be a bad influence to all of the little kids who were his fans. There is no way of telling how many little kids got started on it by watching their heroes use it on televised games and the Lord only knows how many went on to develop cancer from it.

In fact I got started chewing tobacco when I played high school baseball in similar fashion. All baseball players just naturally chewed tobacco including me. I was chewing a big plug of Red-Man chewing tobacco one day and was out in the woods squirrel hunting. My trusty dog Poochie treed a squirrel in a high tree. I circled the tree about ten times looking for the squirrel with my head cocked back. Some of the tobacco juice trickled down my throat and I got a scratchy feeling and suddenly I inadvertently coughed and swallowed a huge plug of tobacco the size of a plum. I don’t recall ever being that sick. My gastro-intestinal system was put to the test almost immediately. I headed home stopping every fifty feet repeatedly to…well, you get the picture. I was green when I got home and looked in the mirror. I was not the same for a week, and smokeless tobacco was not a problem from that point on. I would have preferred to have Brett Butler counsel me as he did the little kid. I know some grown men that still use it and face serious health consequences. They need to read Brett’s book to understand what cancer in that area of your body is like and what intensive chemo therapy is like. It is devastating.

I think we should all take a lesson out of Brett’s book. Our children are impressionable. How do you act around them? Do you tell them not to drink alcohol as you refill your wine glass? Do you send them to Sunday school with a friend and sleep in? One of my precious twins called her sister an idiot the other day. She went crying to her mama and told her that her sister called her an idiot. When quizzed by her mother as to where she heard that word, she told her that she heard pappaw say it. Huh?

“Little pictures have big eyes” is an apt description of little impressionable kids; kids are always watching and we influence them more than we know. Be a good influence not only to kids but to others especially non-believers.

An observer should be able to tell the difference from a Christian and a non-Christian and if they cannot, something is wrong with the Christian’s behavior. The Bible tells us to let our light shine. Keep it shining and we should make a concentrated effort to prevent our dark side from blocking its illumination.

Matt. 5:16
Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good
works and glorify your Father in
heaven.