A reader writes: Two things nobody can take away …

Certainly enjoyed your sermon on Sunday. Was unable to attend the Saturday sessions (Caregiver duties) but heard great things about the entire program. As I mentioned briefly when I met you in the church lobby, my Dad expressed a message to me that I thought would be an excellent tie-in with your stated message, “The Way of Life is the Way of Love.”
My Dad and I were out fishing one summer’s day, and after arriving at one of our favorite spots on the lake, getting all of our lines set and ready for the fish to take over, he said to me, “Jim, I want to talk WITH you about something special. Now having a parent talk “TO” you is one thing, but when the statement includes the word “WITH”, I knew we were going to have a two-way conversation about some topic he had in mind. Being twelve years of age at the time, I figured this was going to be a special discussion.
So, he opened up the dialogue with the comment, “It’s something I’ve been wanting to share with you, and I believe now is a good time to do so.” Then he intoned, “Son, you have two things that no one can take away from you. You have to make the personal decision to give them up.” Well, I thought and thought about that comment, and lots of things I owned flashed thru my mind. Must have looked fairly perplexed, because his next comment gave me one of the answers.
“The first and most important thing you own is your INTEGRITY. No one can make you cheat. No one can make you steal. No one can make you lie. You have to make the conscious effort to do one of those activities yourself. You have to cross the line of honesty to do so, and once you do it’s hard to get back on the other side of the line.”
Well, I thought to myself that that made a lot of sense. I was getting ready to join Boy Scouts and the first law of that organization was Trustworthy. I felt that I could keep that law, so the being honest was not going to be too tough of a challenge.
“The second thing you have that no one can take away from you is your POSITIVE ATTITUDE. You have to give that up and join the many, many people who seem to want to exhibit a negative line of thinking on situations. And from my experience, no amount of negative thinking ever made activities and life worth much. From my point of view”, he said, “there is no statement about any situation that you can’t make from a positive frame of thinking.”
I thought about that comment for a minute, and then he said, “Let me give you an example of what i’m talking about. When we get home later today, and we haven’t caught any fish and your Mother asks you how was fishing, what are you going to say?”
I looked a little perplexed, so he offered a suggestion. “Would you tell her that ‘We didn’t catch any fish’?” A pause ensued, and he said, “You know what? She’ll already know because we aren’t cleaning any!”
Well, sir. That day meant a great deal to me as I grew up and joined the adult world. And I have been trying to live that discussion for the last 60 years of my life.
Please feel free to use any of this in any of your workshops where you feel it might prove to be a worthy addition.
Again, thank you for gracing our congregation with your wisdom.