“REED” This
I Remember
I remember really liking an orange shirt with Winnie the Pooh on the front pocket area. I wore that shirt when I was three or four years old. I remember living in a white brick house with a big oak tree in the front yard and my dad’s garden in the back. I remember the large drainage ditch that ran along one side of the yard and around the very back. I remember playing football with my brother in the front yard and the sidewalk to the front door was the fifty-yard line. I remember a swing set in the back yard, but I don’t actually remember playing on it. I remember when I was five years old talking with my father one night in my parent’s bedroom and praying to receive Jesus as my Savior. I remember moving to an old two-story house closer to downtown that had wood floors. I remember running and sliding across that floor with just our socks on until my brother got a big splinter in his foot. I remember it being so cold several times that we had to stay upstairs until lunch because there wasn’t enough gas in town to heat the downstairs. I remember moving to our new house that dad had built on the west side of town. I remember petting the neighbor’s horses in the pasture there behind the house when they would lean their heads down over the fence. I remember watching two snakes fight on the back porch and then watched the king snake swallow the copper head snake after winning the fight. I remember raking pine straw a lot because we had so many pine trees in that yard. I remember playing games with my family in the living room by the fireplace. I remember moving from that house to another one closer to town where I had my own bedroom and didn’t have to share with my brother. I remember it was upstairs, small, and had no windows, but I liked it. I remember moving to another house east of town where my father started getting sick. I remember not liking the neighbor’s dog because it always came over to our yard and bothered us. I remember moving to two other houses before my father passed away and before I graduated high school. I remember all my life, wherever we lived, there was music being played on piano and organ and there was singing. I remember all my life, wherever we lived, we always went to First Baptist Church in DeQueen. I remember my Sunday School teachers and R.A. leaders, one of which became my father-in-law. I remember my children’s and youth choir leaders and singing in the church. I remember the pastors: Bro. Joe who baptized me; Bro. Nick who cried a lot when he preached because he was so burdened for the lost; and Bro. Victor who played golf with me and preached my father’s funeral. I remember my youth minister, Steve, who was awesome and always helping me in ways that I didn’t fully realize until later in my life. I remember God calling me into full-time ministry at youth camp in Siloam Springs, Arkansas the summer after my junior year of high school. I remember starting college and feeling scared and alone. I remember later really enjoying college and learning more about music and ministry. I remember hearing and reading in scripture many places where God told the Israelites to remember all He had done for them. I remember hearing and reading 2 Timothy 2:8, “Always remember that Jesus Christ, a descendant of King David, was raised from the dead. This is the Good News I preach.” I remember as I got older coming to a better understanding of what God had done for me when He saved me. I remember that I don’t deserve His love. I remember that I don’t deserve His grace and mercy. I remember that I am His child – a child of God. I remember “that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love” (Romans 8:38). I remember Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me,” (John 10:28). I remember He also said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be My witnesses, telling people about me everywhere” (Acts 1:8). I remember surrendering to His call upon my life to serve Him in full-time ministry. I remember following His leading to college and to seminary and the degrees He led me to study and earn. I remember the strength and understanding He gave me in order to accomplish that. I remember the strength and ability to live for Him all the days of my life. I remember my God. I remember my Savior. I remember my calling. I remember.
Bro. Paul Reed
Tuesday, October 5, 2021