Details, Samson, Grandma and Grandpa

I am probably not going to say too much about the situation, but it appears that Brittany and Andrew are getting divorced. So far, we have heard only one side of the story. Every story has two sides – especially when there are circumstances like this involved.  From Brittany’s perspective, her ex-husband is the devil incarnate and she is saintly for having endured her torment for ten years. As much as I love my daughter Brittany, I am almost certain that that is exaggerated. I just don’t know how much. At some point, we will get Andrew’s side of the story and see how the accounts mete out. For now, we are praying for the children involved that whatever the truth is, they will be protected and shielded from the most damaging effects of this decision.

I asked Victoria last night, since I had no other children close to question, why four of our seven children show no interest in God. She had no answer. I am truly curious. I cannot be the judge of my own actions from the perspective of how those actions affected our children, but Mama and I have lived our Spiritual lives in front of our children for all the years of our marriage – for all their lives. Were we perfect? Not even close. But we tried to be consistent. Yet, my two sons and two of our five daughters have estranged themselves from God. How much am I responsible for that decision? I do not know, but I certainly bear some responsibility. How much of that discounting of our Spiritual standards is the result of the spouses they have chosen I cannot tell, but it is deeply saddening to witness. Every decision we make has consequences; outcomes built into the decision. Poor Spiritual decisions yield hazardous Spiritual outcomes, often with Eternal consequences for the children unaware of how those decisions on their parents’ part impacted their Eternal destination.

We raised our children in church, so they had the opportunity to learn Spiritual truth. What is concerning to me and Mama, is that our grandchildren will not have that same opportunity because they are not in church, much less a good Bible-preaching church. Mama and I realize that each of our children must make those decisions on their own, but we had higher hopes for those life choices that what we are seeing. Mama and I have the promise of God’s Word to rest upon. “Train up a child in the way that he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 So, we continue to pray and trust the Lord.

Mama called me in desperation this morning. She could hear Samson barking from somewhere in the property beside us. It was his “Help me!” bark and Mama responded appropriately. She found him stuck in a bog near the quarry lake. Her first attempt to approach him resulted in her almost losing a shoe in the soft ground around Samson, so she called me. I changed as soon as I got home and grabbed a half sheet of thin plywood that had been sitting at the duck enclosure.

Once equipped, I opened the gate to the property and carried the sheet to place it by Samson. He was buried in the bog with only his back and head above the slimy, smelly, sucking mud. It took all my strength to pull his back legs free of the mud while Mama tugged on the front of his body, but together, we managed to get him dragged up onto the sheet of plywood. He did not whimper too much although we are sure that tugging on his fur to extricate him from the mud was painful to him.

After several minutes of coaxing, Samson tried to get up but was unable. We are not sure how long he was encased in the mud, but I could have been overnight. It was certainly through most of the morning. Anyway, he was too tired to get up. He tried several times but failed to raise his back legs. If exhaustion is the only issue, he will rest and come home. If there is a deeper problem with his hips that is limiting his motion, I may have to put him down where he is lying. Either way, we will deal with him later this afternoon since I had to get back to work and Mama had to get herself and Grandma to doctor’s appointments.

As far as Grandma’s multiple extractions goes. She is doing well. There is obviously some pain from surgery required to get the broken teeth out of her upper jaw, but nothing out of the ordinary. I am certain the swelling is a bit more than it should have been because Grandma has never stopped talking. When the numbing was still active in her mouth, she talked incessantly even though Grandpa warned her against so much yammering. What pain she is experiencing has not slowed her down any which I take as a sign that things are okay. By the end of this week, she should be able to eat anything she wants, although most of what she wants is sweet cakes and pudding. She should be able to get back to safely eating her harder cookies soon.

Grandpa is making significant progress. He was out sweeping the front walk Saturday afternoon. That is a huge step up in activity. He is talking about brush hogging with the tractor this week.  Another huge step forward in activity, and a real blessing if he does have the energy to do so.

Mama and I are both very encouraged with what God is doing in their lives right now.