April 30 2018 – Click here to listen
This weekend I attended my young plantation manager’s wedding. It was a splendid outdoor wedding and the day was perfect.
We’ve had so many great times together being outdoors, fishing, and hunting that there is not enough room to mention all of them here. But alas, it will soon come to an end and after many years of loyal dedication to his job (and me and our family) he will soon move to Atlanta and join her, I’m happy for both of them, but will miss seeing his smiling face.
When Kyle first joined our organization, he didn’t know much of anything about timber management, farming, or wildlife management. All that changed; he worked hard and learned and was promoted several times and now is very competent in all those areas. He is well mannered, likable, a hard worker, and willing to take on any chore.
Kyle has an excellent relationship with the Lord as does his new wife. He faithfully mowed the grass at Honey Lake Church every Sunday on his own time and blew the leaves off the drive and walkways. He also maintained the bushes and picked up limbs and hauled them off after storms. He often served as an usher handing out study Bibles to visitors and assisting with taking up the offering.
He stayed up until late at night cleaning harvested deer in order that we could donate them to The Good Samaritan homeless feeding operation in Tallahassee as well as to struggling neighbors. He was always available to lend a hand to pretty much anyone in need.
I’m not trying to launch him into sainthood or anything and he was very stubborn and mule-headed at times, so much so that on occasion I referred to him as “meathead,” but I told his father Sunday that he and his wife did an excellent job raising him and I would be proud to call him my own son.
Now Kyle’s work has not gone unnoticed by Jesus, who has rewarded him with marriage to a beautiful young woman and awarded him a wonderful companion for life and hopefully some children that will look like her and he will raise with the same values that he was taught as a youngster.
Last night I watched an episode of Drugs Inc on the Discovery channel about young people taking heroin. It was sickening to watch the utter destruction of so many lives. Those young people are as far away from what Kyle experienced at Honey Lake and his marriage as one can imagine. It reminds me of God’s creation being spoiled like a piece of meat rotting in the hot sun. As we look around our beautiful world it’s undeniably marred with cesspools of ugliness. It reminds me of seeing plastic bottles and beer cans floating in the beautiful azure blue ocean far offshore. Seeing those beautiful clean blue waters fouled with garbage makes me sick to my stomach similar to seeing those young lives destroyed by heroin.
God’s gifts are pure, but sadly some pursue the darkness and avoid the light. What a difference God, godly parents and family can make in someone’s life. Seek God and enjoy His wonderful gifts. Satan wants to destroy your life; God wants to give you life. I saw peace, joy, and hope at that marriage Saturday and it is no accident that it is founded in the love of Jesus Christ.
The world and those who are morally corrupt make fun of us and our religion and call us fools. If only they could experience the purity of God . . .
James 1:27
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.