"SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM"

PART 2

There are many fine books at the bookstore on growing up as a preacher's kid but this series has little to do with that subject. However since we started with the economic sacrifices that preachers and their families endured in years gone by let me take the time to mention one other issue. That is being an example for the brethren's kids. This example thing had nothing to do with right and wrong. The brethren felt that it would be easier to enforce rules on their children if they could say, "the preachers kid does it" or "the preachers kid doesn't do it." The subjects ranged from swimming to shorts to the prom to the time to be home to having your own car to hairstyles and on and on, ad nausea! Even though God's Word does not say "avoid every appearance of evil" (I think our preacher fathers knew that it was a mistranslation in the KJV and should have read "avoid every kind of evil") our parents used it anyway along with the "influence" argument to enforce rules that even they didn't agree with. This created a double standard that was unfair. Norman Vincent Peale says that this is why the preacher's kids are usually the most rebellious in the congregation. He was a PK too so he should know. To my readers who are preachers let me say that you should never make rules for your children for the sake of the brethren. They should have no doubt that every rule you enforce is in their best interest regardless of what the brethren believe. To the brethren: being a parent is not the responsibility of the preacher, the elders or the congregation. If you can't raise your children without using someone else's children as examples you have some serious parenting not to mention spiritual problems. Enough Said!!!

The truth is that if you did not grow up as a preacher's kid you missed out on the greatest life a child can have. I'm not talking about those preachers who kept their families separate from their preaching and travels. These are the ones whose wives you never met. Whose children were only pictures in their wallet! No I'm talking about the kind of preacher's family I grew up in. When dad held a meeting, and most were during summer vacation, we all went. If it was within driving distance we went to services every night and slept in the car on the way home. If it was during the school year we did our homework in the backseat. My mother even went with my dad to make calls, that is she worked with him. When we were little mother would take multiple changes of clothes along with washcloths to clean us up before dad's next stop. We would play in the yard with the other children while mom and dad would visit the sick or teach God's Word. We made more new friends in a year that most kids do in a lifetime.

A "well rounded education" is a very popular subject these days. For most people it is just talk but being a preachers kid it was a reality. We were exposed to every class of society that exists. We would have dinner one night with the richest folks in town and the next with a family that didn't own a refrigerator. Often we would go early in the day and could play with toys we only saw in the Sears Catalog. The next day we would be playing in someone's barn and riding the mule. We learned that you don't judge people by their possessions. Those who were well off were no different than anyone else. Those who didn't have two cents to rub together were often the salt of the earth. Just as important is that our friends were not restricted to people who were "like us."

While I am on the subject, don't forget about race. A preacher's kid learns to judge men by their actions and not the color of their skin. That is not something we believe but something we know! Recently I read an article written by a brother who accused Marshall Keeble of being an "Uncle Tom" for the white churches. If this writer had been a preacher's kid some liberal college professor couldn't have made him a racist. Yes, I said a racist. His article made race an issue between brethren in a way that I never saw. My mother did her homework and slept in the back seat because my grandfather led singing night after night at Gospel Meetings in black churches. This was in Missouri in the 30's and 40's. My father preached the gospel to blacks and welcomed them as members of the congregation in the 50's. And this was in South Georgia long before the civil rights movement. To us it was not a social question but one of brotherhood. I have eaten in the kitchen while brethren with a darker hue ate in our dining room. They then slept in my bed while I slept on the floor. If you are a bleeding heart liberal writing about race, don't mess with me! I am a preacher's kid and learned as a small child that my brother in Christ is one who has obeyed the Gospel. Period!!!

Yes I am proud to have been a preacher's kid. I wouldn't trade the experiences for all the money in the world. I traveled from coast to coast and border to border. I lived in West Africa and saw the Kingdom of God grow by leaps and bounds. I made friends in places other kids only read about. I attended the protracted meetings before Christians became so soft that their bottoms can only stand three days of Gospel preaching. Don't tell me that sinners today don't want the truth I know the problem is that today's Christians are spiritually weak. The issue is not sinners attending longer meetings it is that the members won't come! I remember sitting on the pulpit so there would be room for the adults to sit in the pews or on the chairs in the isles. I saw people leaning in the windows of a frame-meeting house just to hear the Bible preached. I saw "the zeal of the Lord's house has eaten me up" in the lives of Christ's disciples. If I hadn't seen it I would believe that today's lukewarm church is the way it has always been. I did pay a price, everything in life costs something, but now looking back it was worth everything I missed. God is good and being a preacher's kid was one of His blessings.

Before I end this section and go to preachers and preaching let me say something about bro. Keeble. You would have to go back to the first century to find anyone who may have brought more sinners to the cross than did Marshall Keeble. He was not a black or colored or Negro preacher he was a Gospel Preacher. How did I learn this? I was a preacher's kid and we were waiting for the service to begin. Dad put his arm around his grade school age son and said, "As long as you live I want you to remember that tonight you heard one of the greatest preachers that ever lived. Never forget that you heard Marshall Keeble preach." I was blessed to hear him other times before he left to meet the Lord and I never forgot what my dad taught me. I was listening to the story of Jesus from the heart of a great preacher not a black preacher.

To be continued

The Parson