Letters From Grandpa #414

LETTERS FROM GRANDPA

• 414

Dearest grandchild,

Someone has said that with our i-phones and computers we are only one click away from Sodom! Please don’t yield to that temptation! This letter is to encourage you to “Set your minds on things above and not on early things” (Colossians 3:2). You can do this if you want to!

As you know, it is hard to walk an unused path. The more you use the path, however, the easier it is to use. If we think about God often enough, our thoughts about God can become so natural that they dominate our thinking!

Please focus your mental and spiritual energies on these words by the late C.H. Spurgeon. He wrote them on January 7, 1855 when he was only twenty-five years of age.

“It has been said by someone that the proper study of man is man. I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of the Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of the child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in the contemplation of Divinity. It is a subject so vast that all of our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self content, and go our way with the thought, ‘Behold I am wise’. But when we come to this master-science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s cold; and with solemn exclamation. ‘I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.’ No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God.

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe . . .The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as the devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of Deity.

And while humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is in the contemplation of Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietness for every grief; in the influence of the Holy Spirit, that is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know of nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as the devout musing on the subject of the Godhead.”

When we moved to Carthage, Missouri in 1965 we became fast friends with Ardel and Sue Moore. At the time both of our families had four children about the same age. The Moores had a swimming pool where we were always welcome. They were very generous and loving and frequently took us out to eat when our budget would not allow us to pay. One of our favorite places to eat was “Shotgun Sam’s” pizza parlor.

Our hearts were broken when Sue passed away with cancer while her children were still at home. No honorarium was given for conducting her funeral, and none was expected. We considered the Moore family as our family and I felt honored to do anything to repay their kindness. Several weeks later Ardel pressed something in my hand on his way out of church. Later I discovered it was a check for $175. I was initially in shock and eager to return the check. Then I decided to see what the balance was in our checking account. Since both Betty and I were writing checks on the same account I discovered to my horror that when our last checks cleared we would be $174.25 overdrawn. Sheepishly I accepted the check and asked Ardel if he wanted the 75 cents back. He graciously declined!

Later Ardel married another godly woman named Edie Bowers. Here is a poem she composed:

THE HEART IS A GARDEN

“The heart is a garden where thought flowers grow. The thoughts that you think are the thoughts that you sow.

Every kind loving thought bears a kind loving deed.

While the thought that is selfish is just like a weed. We must watch what we think of each minute of the day,

and pull out the weed thoughts and throw them away.

And plant loving seed thoughts so thick in row, that there won’t be room for the weed thoughts to grow.”

Written by Edie Bowers Moore

Please let your “seed thoughts” be on things above and not on things of earth!

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce