Blessings of Heritage-Part 1 — Week 1

By Nellie Keasling, Editorial Coordinator, Ministerial Development

"The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage” (Psalm 16:6).

My parents were godly and loved the Lord with all their hearts. Dad was a Church of God preacher who pastored several small churches in the Houston, Texas, area. To help support his family, he always had to work at a secular job.

Being a preacher’s kid had its drawbacks, but it also had its positive side—a wonderful heritage full of blessings for me and even for my children. The things he left me took a lifetime of living to impart—examples he lived out, messages he preached, and last of all his good name.

One example my dad lived out in front of me, and everyone who knew him, was his response to the Bible’s command on restitution. Early in his ministry, God reminded my dad about something he had stolen as a young man before he was married. During the days of the Great Depression when work was hard to find in the backwoods of Alabama, my dad worked as a night watchman for a coal company. He sat in the small coal company office until midnight with very little to do.

One evening he decided to break the boredom by writing to a girl he knew. So he looked around and found a piece of paper and a pencil. After finishing his letter he looked around for an envelope. Finally, he found an envelope. Then he needed a stamp. Determined to mail this letter, he looked in all the drawers until he finally found where the stamps were kept. He took a three-cent stamp and mailed his letter the next day.

Dad thought no more about this incident until years later when he was pastoring a church in Houston, Texas. God pricked his conscience about the three-cent stamp and the stationery. He just could not get away from the fact that he had stolen—no matter that the item was worth only three cents; the fact remained that he had stolen it. He promised God that if He would help him find the company, he would repay them for the stolen stamp and stationery. Dad did not want a three-cent postage stamp to keep him out of heaven.

This opportunity came one summer in the 1950s when he was invited to preach a revival in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. While he was there, he asked a family friend to help him locate the coal company. Relating his story to the secretary, he tried to pay her for a book of stamps. She called the manager to the front desk who told my dad there was no way he would accept money for an entire book of stamps as repayment. If he did, he said, his conscience would hurt him. So, as repayment the manager finally took three stamps and would not hear of repayment for the stationery. My dad’s conscience never bothered him again about that.

When Dad would tell this story, the listeners would shake their heads in disbelief. Why bother with a three-cent stamp taken so long ago? Dad would always quote Exodus 22:12: “If it be stolen . . . he shall make restitution unto the owner thereof.” Dad’s exemplary Christian living not only blessed me during my growing-up years, but it has continued to bless me throughout my life.

Reprinted from Basketful of Blessings. Used by permission.

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