“Grandpa” told me fascinating stories about growing up, when he walked six miles to school every day. At 15, he learned how to buy flower seeds through the Sears and Roebuck Hunter Carr’s Inspirational catalog, so this young entrepreneur decided to sell them to the farmers’ wives along his daily school trail. He was a success, because every farmer’s wife he talked to wanted to buy his flower seeds!
When high school graduation time came, he told his first customer that he was graduating and would be stopping his “flower seeds” route. The lady said, “Let me pray for you and your success.” When Grandpa walked off that porch, he thought, “That felt so good! I am going to all my flower seed customers and asking them to pray for my success in life.” That day, he had all 24 customers praying for him.
Whenever I heard him tell that story, I could see him mentally picturing each lady praying for him, and a little tear would well up in his eyes. Then he chuckled and said, “That is why we have the best flowers of any state!”
He and Grandma were married 75 years, and they loved the Lord. Grandpa read his Bible daily and was always a church leader. He believed that all lives count, and he especially wanted his life to count when he got to Heaven. I have his old Bibles, and one of the marked verses is James 1:22: “I am a doer of the Word of God and am Blessed in my deeds. I am happy in those things I do, because I am a doer of the Word of God.”
And so it was and is! If he could talk to me today, he would probably say, “The end times may be near, and there is trouble in the world, but you be a Doer of the Word of God and you will be Blessed in all you do—for all your days!”