Worthy Of Praise Series

Worthy of Praise - 1 Samuel 1 - May 12, 2013

Series: Mother’s Day

Dear Mom,

Our scout master told us all to write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and worried. We are OK. Only 2 of our tents and 4 sleeping bags got washed away. Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Jeff when it happened. Please call Jeff's mother and tell her he is OK but he can't write her himself because of the cast. I got to ride in one of the search & rescue jeeps. It was pretty cool.

We never would have found him in the dark if it hadn't been for the lightning. Scoutmaster Web got mad at Jeff for going on a hike alone without telling anyone. Jeff said he did tell him, but it was during the fire so he probably didn't hear him. Did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas can will blow up? The wet wood still didn't burn, but one of our tents did. Also some of our clothes. Larry is going to look weird until his hair grows back.

We will be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Webb gets the car fixed. It wasn't his fault about the wreck. After all the brakes worked OK when we left. Scoutmaster Webb said that a car that old you have to expect something to break down; that's probably why he can't get insurance on it. We think it's a neat car though. He doesn't care if we get it dirty, and if it's hot, sometimes he lets us ride on the tailgate. It gets pretty hot with 10 people in a car mom so we ride on the tailgate a lot.

He let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrolman stopped and talked to us. Scoutmaster Webb is a neat guy. Don't worry, he is a good driver. In fact, he is teaching brother Doug how to drive. But he only lets him drive on the mountain roads where there isn't any traffic. All we ever see up there are logging trucks.

This morning all of the guys were diving off the rocks and swimming out in the lake. Scoutmaster Webb wouldn't let me because I can't swim and Jeff was afraid he would sink because of his cast, so he let us take the canoe across the lake. It was great. You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood. Scoutmaster Webb isn't crabby like some scoutmasters. He didn't even get mad about the life jackets. He has to spend a lot of time working on the car so we are trying not to cause him any trouble.

Guess what? We have all passed our first aid merit badges. When Rob dove in the lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works. Also Bruce and I threw up. Scoutmaster Webb said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken, he said they got sick that way with the food they ate in prison. I'm so glad he got out and become our scoutmaster. He said he sure figured out how to get things done better while he was doing his time.

I have to go now. We are going into town to mail our letters and buy bullets.

Don't worry about anything. We are fine.

Love, Dave

Well surely that’s a letter that would tear at the heart strings of any mother. Perhaps some of you have received letters like that from your own children. Something that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time. That’s what I think parenthood feels like a lot – you’re never sure if you should be laughing or crying at any given time and sometimes you just do both at once.

I read about a woman who telephoned a friend and asked how she was feeling, "Terrible," came the reply over the line, "my head's splitting and my back and legs are killing me. The house is a mess, and the kids are simply driving me crazy." Very sympathetically the caller said, "Listen, go and lie down, I'll come over right away and cook lunch for you, clean up the house, and take care of the children while you get some rest. By the way, how is Sam?"

"Sam?" the complaining housewife gasped. "I don’t know anyone named Sam."

"My goodness," exclaimed the first woman, "I must have dialed the wrong number."

There was a long pause and then the harried mother hopefully asked in a still small voice, "You’re still coming over though, aren’t you?" Now for some of you those days are long past. You now have the grandkids to look forward to, to nurture to encourage and to return home at the end of the day. But even if your kids are grown you never stop being a mother. You never stop caring and you never stop loving. (Author Unknown)