Tag Archives: Faith

court, Faith, Family, grace, Hope, inspiration, Jesus, love, story

I Hate You, But Not Really

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(This is based on a true story told to me by a Chief Juvenile Probation Officer.)

~~He knelt down on his knees, looked up at Jesus on the cross, and shook his fist. “I hate you”, he said loudly, “I hate you.”  He said it over and over.  Soon he was screaming with every fiber of his being. Louder and louder, with more and more pent-up emotions streaming out of his voice. “I hate you! I HATE you!  I HATE YOU!”~~

The boy had suffered emotional and verbal abuse from his mother since his birth. When his father was around, which wasn’t a lot, it was always the same song, second verse.  He could count on one hand the times a physical beating for some slight or imagined offense hadn’t followed a visit with his father. Continue reading I Hate You, But Not Really →

Faith, Family, grace, Hope, inspiration, kindness, love

Help This Boy

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Sometimes pictures get me.  It sounds silly. Maybe it is.  But sometimes, a picture hits me in my core, cutting, ripping, tearing away at soul and sinew.

Some pictures, some stories haunt me as assuredly as a ghost in a graveyard.  I can’t sleep without it popping into my dreams. I can’t concentrate without it popping into conscious thought.

This picture sticks with me like a chain around the heart:

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Continue reading Help This Boy →

Faith, Family, grace, Hope, inspiration, Jesus, kindness, story

Little or Lot Faithful

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The lady blurted out to the Walmart Customer Service worker, “I’m the one you called a few minutes ago about the purse!”

I was waiting in line and glanced at her.  The worker asked her to describe the purse.  She did, and was told to wait just a minute while the worker went to the back office.

She was casually dressed in blue jeans, flip flops and a bright, pink Fight Breast Cancer t-shirt.  Her hair was about half an inch long over her entire head.  In fact, I wasn’t sure if she was being treated for cancer, or just wearing her hair short.  She waited with an anxious, lip chewing expression on her face. A minute later, the Walmart worker came out holding a small red change purse.

Continue reading Little or Lot Faithful →

dying, Faith, food, grace, Hope, kindness

When Did I See You Hungry?

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His frail fingers trembled as he took the nickel from the missionary’s hand.  The starving Haitian boy was wearing a pair of ragged shorts, threadbare t-shirt, and shoes that had worn out months before.

During the peak of the famine, homeless children and orphans looked for any way they could to survive.  If they could get a nickel, they could get enough scraps of food to live another day.

So when the missionary was walking on a road in Haiti and came across the sickly orphan boy sitting listlessly on the roadside, he gave the boy a nickel.  Continue reading When Did I See You Hungry? →

Church, Faith, Family, grace, Humor, inspiration, Jesus, love

The Best Babatism Ever

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At church, a boy about seven years old was baptized.  As is custom before a baptism at our church, the media team shows a video of each person talking about their life, why they chose to believe, and why they want to be baptized.

In the boy’s video, he spoke sincerely, and his contagious smile was memorable because he had lost both front teeth. He said several times in the video that he wanted to be “babatized” and talked about how he wanted someone special from out-of-town to “babatize” him.

Turns out, the special person was the boy’s godfather, a young man in his late twenties who could easily pass for a military soldier.  Where we go to church, immersion is the mode of baptism, which means going completely under water from head to toe, or maybe if you’re seven years old, getting dunked.  Continue reading The Best Babatism Ever →

Daughters, Faith, Family, fathers, grace, Hope, inspiration, story

Car Deal Gone Good

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The seller dropped the keys in my youngest daughter’s hand, and with a smile, told her he had just filled up the gas tank for her too!

I’ve bought eight, yes eight used cars for each of my eight kids as their first vehicle.  Don’t be impressed. There is a set amount that has been the same for all of them.  They can spend more if they want with money they have saved, or they can spend less and take the extra cash and run.

Continue reading Car Deal Gone Good →

country, Faith, Family, Health, inspiration

It’s All Good

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The alarm goes off at 5:05 AM. It made enough noise and took the perfect amount of time to rouse from a deep sleep. A pull of the blanket over the head won’t make sleep return. Besides, a nagging conscience says get up and exercise.

By 5:25 AM I’m hitting the road. At the same time the day before, I walked with my daughter, Jessica, while she walked the neighbor’s dog.

Today though, the dog will be walked in the afternoon. And besides, today Jessica wouldn’t wake except for a five-alarm fire and Janet’s allergies would go ballistic in the midst of the pine pollen blizzard.

The first steps are always the hardest, especially walking by yourself. It’s a battle of wills as the body objects to the mind’s intentions. After a quarter-mile, the body submits. After a mile, body and mind are in harmony.

Continue reading It’s All Good →

Addiction, beauty, Church, Faith, Family, grace, inspiration, Jesus

Heart of Community

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In church I was probably the least prepared person there, and most likely, the one who needed to be there the most.  The preacher started talking about togetherness, belonging, unity, community.

Somehow, someway, sometimes something will hit you right between the eyes and just smack across the brow.  Today it smacked me.  Community.

I looked around.  A few rows over sat a young couple who are privately grieving a miscarriage and wondering when, if ever, will they have a child.  They hurt. Only those who’ve been there know how hard it is to say goodbye before you say hello.  Community.

Continue reading Heart of Community →

dying, Faith, Family, fathers, grace, Hospice, inspiration

I See Daniel

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My dad, Daniel Rab, was best friends in high school with Jimmie Jones, who lived right across the street.  Dad was the fifth of 9 Rab children and Jimmie was the oldest of 8 Jones kids.  Needless to say, under those circumstances, they were always at each other’s house and there was always something to do.

Dad got to where he would go over to Jimmie’s house, but not so much to see his best friend, but rather Jimmie’s younger sister, Jo Ann, my Mom.

And so it was over time Mom became a Rab.

Continue reading I See Daniel →

Church, Faith, Family, grace, inspiration, kindness, love

Hayride of a Lifetime

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In my junior year of college, Aubrey came to the Gulf Coast from Mississippi State for a college internship.  He was in every way a young, southern gentleman, a kindhearted fellow with a charisma that shined when he spoke in his slow, southern drawl.  On top of it, he was mature beyond his years.

We met at church, and Aubrey immediately became a part of our college group.  In fact, not knowing a soul from Texas, we became his local social network.  He became a friend.

Even under the best of circumstances, things can go bad.  At no fault of  Aubrey, it did. Continue reading Hayride of a Lifetime →