GOD'S SEVENTH LITTLE ACRE
THE SPIRITUAL SIDE
Our Firm Foundation
Most of all we remember the spiritual life and atmosphere of our home. The concern for and dedicated efforts to live a Christian life. This we remember in our home. The family devotions each evening and on Sundays if we couldn't make it to church in town because of road conditions. This didn't happen very often because if the roads were too wet, we'd go by horses and wheels. If too much snow for the car, it was by horses and sleigh. All week we worked to prepare our clothes, shoes, lessons, and the conveyance so that we should be found in our local congregation, five miles from home.
Sundays for Church and God
There we received Sunday School training in which Papa was the superintendent for many years, Mama and Papa both taught classes and sang in the choir; Confirmation instruction, Vacation Bible School (six weeks straight), then of course with VBS we often had the teacher stay at our house. This afforded us a ride. Otherwise we could use a horse and buggy or walk if Papa needed the horses in the field. Attending the church services we did! Never did we ask "why?" even if at times we wondered.
Christian Education--More The Better!
The trip to Bible Camp at Lake Geneva when Papa fixed up the truck made over into a bus by which twenty people (family, friends, relatives) got to attend, gave spiritual assurance to several after the week. After grade school we were privileged to attend Augustana Academy, a trip which we took mostly by train over a hundred miles from home.
A Sacrifice Reaps Lasting Gain
Always tears were shed as we left home. Before Papa started the car, as we sat ready to leave, and the younger ones with Mama standing by, the finale was to sing "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow!"--an unforgettable doxology hymn. It left a deep impression and a long-remembered tradition. Not only did the nine of us receive Christian education, but somehow Papa and Mama put aside monies so that even the grandchildren could take advantage of the oportunity of attending a Christian high school.
Thank God For A Christian Father
A Christian respect for the nation was instilled in us, and Papa especially stressed Christian leadership and gave tribute to Abraham Lincoln. We thank God for parents who loved the Lord Jesus, read the Word of God to us, practiced its teaching, being faithful, and taught us to do the same. We thank God for all Papa did for us.
Thank God For A Christian Mother
We thank God for Mama."The godly shall flourish like palm trees. Those that are planted in the house of the Lord are under His personal care".
Their Example Never Fades
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age and be vital and green."(The Psalms) Mama and Papa, your children, grandchildren, and great- grand children and even those who follow, all need God the Valiant, the Champion of the energetic, Who can save from the mediocrity of a wasted life, the emptiness of sin and the horror of misdirection.
Their Savior Never Fails
There He stands! The available Savior Who
is the understanding Friend and the competent
Counselor. Your children and children's children, Papa and
Mama, will become middle-aged, then old.
The living will become the dying. The strong will become
weak. The dreamers will become realists.
The process will never go in reverse, for the old
will not become young again.
A Golden Heritage Forever
Therefore, the Gospel of Jesus Christ offers not only a frame for beauty, but offers beauty for the hour when life has been rubbed naked of its luster. The Grace of God is the sufficiency that makes the joyless hour throb wth glory, that puts the glow of heaven on the fading page of earth and makes even your children, grand-kids, and great-grand- children jealous of the intimacies you have shared with the Infinite when the values of love and life have become distilled out of the fragrance of God.
PUBLISHER & EDITOR: Ron Ginther
PLUS OUR NEWEST LEVELS
THE TRIBUTE TO
PEARL
Stadem and Holbeck
Family Backgrounds, By Papa and Mama
Papas Letter of
Events of 1947
E-Mail To the Publisher Ron
Ginther