Words

[Note:  The following "Timely Truth" was written by Roger Mize, Youth Minister and newest member of the Heaton Ministries team.  Roger will be contributing "TImely Truths" on a periodic basis with Brent Nidiffer and Jamie Shell.]        I remember as a child getting ready for bed and my dad picking each of us boys on his back one at a time and carrying us off to bed for the night.  When he would tuck us into bed, he would tell us to kiss his forehead and he would say 'good night'.  I never really remember a time as a child when my dad would actually say the words "I love you", although I knew he did very much. 

     As I got older and started college, my dad and mom had to move to Connecticut so my dad could get a higher paying job to put his three boys through college.  Soon after they moved there my mother lost her job due to job cuts and moved back to Tennessee to be with my brother.  My father lived in Connecticut for five more years by himself.  That was a big sacrifice he made for his children.  This was another way I knew he loved me.

     When he started to retire, our paths were going to cross without seeing each other because I got a job in another state.  I'll never forget the night he called just before I was leaving that next day and while talking with him on the phone in closing he said, "I love you."  I thought that was the greatest thing in the world to hear.  I always knew he loved me, but hearing it was very special.

     In Proverbs 16:24 Solomon writes:  "Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones."  Be sure you are telling your children, wife, husband, mother, or father that you love them.  They may know you do, but hearing the words are worth more than all the gold in the world.