Silly Old Bear

If you were to make a list of people who have made a difference in the world, who would you include?

I recently posed that question to a large group of high school students at a summer camp. Their list included many names you would expect, plus a few surprises.

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Earlier this evening I found myself wandering around Lions Park, the four-field baseball/softball complex where Justin played Little League ball for a couple of years back in his younger days. Susan and I both spent some time on those fields as well, participating at various times on several church-league softball teams.

A few years ago, the City of Waxahachie built a new Sports Complex out on Highway 287 with much nicer, more modern fields and facilities. As a result, Lions Park has become almost forgotten. The fields are in poor shape, some of the fences and backstops have weeds and vines almost covering them, the bleachers have been removed, and the concession stand building is no longer there. I was overcome with a palpable sense of sadness as I stood there taking it all in and reminiscing.

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Someone once said, “In the race to be better or best, don’t miss the joy of being.”

When I was a boy growing up in South Texas, my family would take off for about two weeks every summer and go camping. The first camping trips I remember were to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.

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“A hundred years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove … but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”

That quote is taken from a motivational poster I saw several years ago entitled “Priorities”. The picture on the poster was of a little boy, hands in his back pockets, standing at the edge of a lake looking out over the water. The picture and quote served as a gentle, eloquent reminder to me of the importance of paying attention to the little people — the children — because by doing so we are paying attention to the future!

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Recently I dug my way through several layers of garage sale boxes and other such treasures in our “junk room” to get to my record collection, consisting of well over 300 Long-Playing Records that I started collecting in junior high. The 12-inch, 33⅓ RPM, black vinyl discs have been packed away for years.

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I want to share with you three simple rules that can have a dramatically positive impact on the life of anyone who will truly model his or her life after these principles.

1. BE NICE

The way you treat other people is important. We all know that this is true when we turn it around: The way YOU treat ME is really important! I mean, you had better treat me right; because if you don’t, you’re just a jerk!

So, what does that make me when I don’t treat other people right? Oh, I guess that makes me a jerk!

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Today is Friday, April 27, 2007.

Today, she would be 20.

Ashley Jean O’Rear was born on April 27, 1987, in Corpus Christi, Texas. I was 25 years old, Susan was 22, and Ashley was our first child. We were young, and we were so excited to have been blessed by God with such a beautiful child. Ashley was the classic “bundle of joy”. Her presence in our lives would cause us to experience life, and love, and joy from a whole new perspective and at a much deeper level than we had ever imagined before becoming parents. In the words of a song that I wrote in Ashley’s memory shortly after her death, “The day you came into my life, my world began anew. I didn’t know that love could run as deep as I love you.”

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