The Bridge Builder

THE BRIDGE BUILDER

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.

Kyfingers@aol.com

TEXT:

Ecc. 4:12 And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a three fold cord is not easy broken.

Living Bible:

Ecc. 4:12 And one standing alone can be attacked and defeated. But two can stand back to back and conquer; three is even

better, for a triple braided cord is not easily broken.

Psalms 142:2 I looked on my right hand, and behold, but there was no man that know me; refuge failed me; no man

cared for my soul.

LIKE A BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS, I WILL LAY ME DOWN.

Have you ever watched COPS on TV?

There is a time when the law officer knows, I must call for BACK UP.

Both my sons are law enforcement officers, they have a criteria for knowing when they should call for help, for back up.

Not every situation needs back up. In some situations back up would be a waste of manpower, yet in other situations they will

not approach the need without back up, or at least knowing back up is near.

This battle is not yours. We need help. We need each other.

Dealing with real people is not always rewarding. Just say NO to some child and watch their face?

Wonder where they get that from? Just say NO to an adult and watch the tempers flare.

We do not always see the whole picture? We do not always understand the motive?

Many people are trying to use their power and money to control and manipulate.

When I was a teenager, we lived in Jellico, Tennessee. I-75 goes through Jellico.

The state line divides Jellico in half, part is Kentucky and part is Tennessee.

While living there, we could not afford a lot of things.

One boy in the neighborhood was rich, by our standards.

He had a basketball, there was a basketball goal in the edge of the cemetery.

He owned a softball, a bat, and several leather gloves. He owned a leather football. He owned it all.

We would play basket ball, if he fouled you and you called him for it,

he would take his leather basketball and go home. If he missed the shot, you had to let him shoot again, or he would take his

ball and go home. If he took his ball, we could no longer play.

We would play softball in the edge of the cemetery, if he took a third strike, he would get mad and say he tipped it.

He would get four, five, ten strikes. If you ever called him out, he would take his ball, bat, and gloves and go home.

If he hit a fly ball and you caught it, he would take his ball and go home.

This was so unfair, but what do you do? To get to play, you had to let him manipulate the game.

Need I tell you, he had few real friends?

When we were at school, the coach would not play ball his way.

The coach had rules, the controlling boy lost his control and would throw down

the school equipment in anger.

I do not know what happened to this boy, we moved away to Springfield, Illinois.

I often wonder, what happened to this controlling, manipulative boy as he turned into a man?

I fear the world would not play his game his way?

Since that time, I have seen many people try to manipulate their family, their school, and their church to bend the rules or force

my way or the highway. Many times people do not know all the facts, many times distorted emotions, many times words spoken

out of a sense of control, uses others, and the crowd does not know what is really going on behind the scenes.

I saw a child in a Toy Store. He was crying as he wanted an expensive toy.

His Mom leaned over and explained, Honey, Mommy does not have the money this week. She explained there was groceries

and the car was broke down and need to be fixed. He started screaming and throwing his fist.He hit his Mother in the face,

her glasses fell to the floor.

Finally, she gave in and told the boy he could get the expensive toy. I saw them at the check out, I saw a worried looked on

the Mother’s face. The boy just hugged his Mother and said, Momma, I love you!

I say, HOGWASH, he did not love her by demanding his way. I say, she did not love him by giving in to him.

He was old enough to understand, Momma can’t afford this.

I will tell you sooner or later, there comes a day when Momma will not be able to buy her sons love. What then?