Survival Skills

It was in the middle of the day and while I was standing under the shade of a huge pecan tree, it was still more than just hot.  Using the tail gate of a truck as a work table, I was shucking a bushel of corn.  Somewhere in the old gray matter, memories of such days from the past starting pouring forth.  In the memories I was a young boy about the same chore as the one done today, but also with butter beans and peas in bushel bags waiting for unwilling fingers to shell.  As I was remembering, what occurred to me was the way my parents taught me these survival skills.  They knew I would like eating and taught me some of what was necessary to eat.

 

But, there were other survival skills I learned in that home of my past.  I learned about the importance of loving God.  I learned how to pray.  I was given a Bible at an early age and encouraged to read.  When the church gathered for worship, I was present whether I wanted to be there or not.  I can never remembered being pressured or coerced, but always there was this open door toward faith in Christ that I soon learned I could enter.  As surely as shucking corn can be seen as a survival skill, so can be seen the spiritual disciplines I learned to practice so long ago.

 

I still practice them.  I have not yet perfected any of them, nor do I expect such will happen in this life.  But, I know where I must go to have my soul nurtured.  I know the source of the Water when I run dry.  I have developed a hunger for the Word that has never been satisfied though I have read it and read it again and again.  So, it shall be till I did.  But, until the breath leaves this body that is showing signs of being worn out, I shall practice these spiritual survival skills learned so long ago from parents who cared enough to teach me through word and example.