Ministry of Encouragement Message from my Daddy

Ministry of Encouragement Message for May, 2023 No. 236

For my message for this welcomed month of May, I want to begin with Paul’s writing in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” As a Senior Citizen, I want to share this message that the Lord has laid on my heart regarding some things that in my lifetime I consider as being true, honest, pure, lovely, and of good report ant that is something I recall from my days of childhood regarding the month of May. Now, years ago, the first, second and even the third Sunday in May was considered to be Homecoming Day at the local church. I remember those days and they are most often called Decoration Day.

During the week prior to Decoration Day, or Homecoming Day, the folks in and around the community of the local church would go and clean off the cemetery where their precious loved ones and friends were laid to rest. Everyone pitched in to make the church cemetery a beautiful sight to behold on Decoration Day. I was brought up in New Hope First Baptist Church in Dallas and I remember when the entire cemetery would be covered with white sand, not one grave plot was left out, and on the Sunday of Decoration Day, loved ones would bring a bouquet taken from the snow ball bush in the yard, or a bouquet of peonys from the yard, or a bouquet of native azaleas, taken from the woods, or even a bouquet of sweet shrubs and if there were any dogwood blooms left, they were used for a bouquet. Most were put into a quart fruit jar that had been wrapped in some type of paper. For those long forgotten graves, the ladies of the church would get together and make crepe paper flowers to go on the graves that did not have a bouquet of fresh flowers on them. The entire cemetery looked like a flower garden on Decoration Day. I so vividly remember the Pastor at New Hope First Baptist Church, Rev. Rob Smith, holding the worship service and preaching out in the middle of the cemetery. Talk about a meetin’ that was a hallelujah time and it is a wonder the dead did not rise from their graves.

When it was time to gather around the outdoor table for lunch, the ladies of the church would bring out their cardboard boxes filled with good ole’ southern cooking from a wood stove and talk about some good food, there was always plenty

of it. I remember my dear Mama frying up a skillet of ham from the smoke house meat box, making a pan of biscuits made with homemade lard and buttermilk and a big pan of chicken n’ dressing made from the chicken that was seen out scratching in the yard the day before. Of course she cooked up a black dinner pot of canned green beans from the cellar, a big bowl of crowder peas that had been canned and a big pone of cracklin’ corn bread. I can remember even when some ladies would bring a gallon of buttermilk to the dinner of the ground for folks to drink with their meal. I can never forget the big apple cobbler, made from canned apples that our apple tree in the yard had produced, and there must have been a pound of homemade butter in that apple pie. My dear old Grandmother Rackley would make fried

apple pies and stack them high on a plate. You had to get one of those fried pies first before you filled your plate with vegetables, or you would miss out. Lord, how I wish I could go back just one more time to that Decoration Day when times were hard, but folks were loving, appreciative and they knew where their blessings in life came from and that was the Lord Jesus Christ.

After the meal, there would be a gathering back in the church house for an afternoon of singing the glory down. There was no such thing as “taped music” instead the old upright piano would ring out the music for the singing. Different

brethren of the church would get up and lead a song and folks would sometimes request a certain song to be sung. I remember hearing “In The Sweet By and By, we shall meet on that beautiful shore,” “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee,” “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now I’m found,” and then the shouting would begin and tears would begin to roll from the eyes of the dear old saints of God singing about God’s amazing grace. Of course, no Decoration Day afternoon singing would be complete without the song, “Precious Memories, how they linger, how they ever flood my soul, in the stillness of the midnight, precious sacred scenes fold,.” The Lord only knows how often I long to go back to that country church and experience those pure, true and lovely times when people were honest in their worship of a true and loving God. I am so thankful that I have all of those “Precious Memories” and I still feed from those memories today. These things are what I want to think upon just like Paul told the folks in the Philippian Church to do. May this message bless you today.

Rev. Don Rackley