Skip to main content

Chapter One


Dear Friends,

 "As good as God has been to me I can't afford not to give Him praise."  Today on the blog I am going to share a short story that I wrote some time ago. I am releasing it today because today is a day of new beginnings.  The name of the story is Chapter One.  With God there is always room for new beginnings. Although the story is fiction. It is biographical fiction. It makes my soul look back in wonder how I got over. I know the answer: It was by the grace of God!
                                  Chapter One – The Other House
                                   - by Stephanie D. K. Tyus @2016


My grandmother had a way of keeping up with time at her house. You always knew what to expect depending on whether it was the first, second, third or fourth Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday of the month.  Saturdays and Sundays were regular.  You got ready for church on Saturday regardless of which one it was. On Sunday you went to church.  Period.

Back to the other days. Let’s look at Tuesdays. My grandmother did hair.  She got her license in Alabama.  But she only did hair on the first Tuesday of the month and the fourth Thursday.  You have to have an appointment. Your hair had to be washed before you got there and you had to pay before she set the hot combs to your hair. She started at 7:30 and took her last appointment at 11:30 so she could get lunch ready for my great and great-great grandmother and tend to other things around the house. 

On the second Tuesday of the month Bopreacher came to the house.  I was terrified of this man. He was short and bald. His skin was ashy. I always thought someone should tell him to put Vaseline on his face.   Bopreacher carried a black satchel. I don’t know everything he carried. However, he always seemed to have a lunch, a Bible and a jar of preserves.  He always had oil with him too. 

Bopreacher visited houses where there was a member of the household that did not attend church. The family had to request him to come in and have special prayer and give him an offering.  My grandmother requested the visits for her Cousin Sugar. This went on for several years. Bopreacher tried though. He preached the Bible, he hollered prayers he sprinkled oil but Cousin Sugar told him that you are saved by your own beliefs.
Third Tuesday was shopping day. Grama went to the market and did her shopping for the month. Sometimes she would need a few things in between like milk and bread. But for the most part what she bought on the third Tuesday lasted until next third Tuesday.

 Grama knew how to make things stretch and last.  If something happened and she got in a tight family would help out because everyone knew Third Tuesday was shopping day that was just the way it was, It was marked on the calendar.  No need to wonder about it.
Fourth Tuesday the insurance man came to pick up the premium and the doctor came to the house to check vitals for my great-great grandmother.  Mainly he was checking her blood pressure.  He would check my grandmother and great grandmother’s too.  Like clockwork on the fourth Tuesday.  The insurance man always came after ten and before Noon. The doctor came at 1:00.

I thank God for Chapter One.

God bless!
in Christ,
Sis. Stephanie

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Unlimited Access

"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus"     - I Timothy 2:5 Dear Friends, "Please listen carefully for our options have changed."  I stay on the line listening to each option. More often than not there are at least seven.  If none of the options meet the need you have the final option of pressing "0" for the operator.   I praise God that on this Christian journey.  The access options do not change.  There is only One. One God, One Mediator, the man Christ Jesus. Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice to provide us with unlimited access to the throne of God. We are never put on hold when we reach out to God. Prayer is a direct line through Jesus Christ.  Our worship, our praise is to the One and Only God.  Worthy is the Lamb. Praise God for Unlimited Access through Jesus Christ Our Lord. God bless! in Christ, Sis. Stephanie
Post a Comment
Read more

The Journey Here

  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. - Psalms 23:4 The journey here...that is really something to think about.  Where we are in life as compared to where we had hoped to be.  Paths chosen while other were forgotten or neglected.  Decisions.  Times of indecisiveness. There were times we crawled. Too weary to walk.  We ran. We were too impatient to wait.   The journey.  Here.  That is really something to think about. For me the most difficult and sometimes debilitating aspect of the journey, has been walking through the valley of the shadow of death.  Tempted to fear due to memories of time I could have spent, conversations I should have had, hugs I wish I had given.  This type of fearful fretting is not of God.  I have learned; I am learning that if I truly believe, He is with me.  If I surely stand on His promi...
Post a Comment
Read more

If We Live

  For  that  ye ought to say, If the Lord  will ,  we  shall live, and  do   this ,  or   that .                                                   - James 4:15 If I live to see tomorrow... I remember hearing adults say this when I was a child.  Tomorrow seemed to be some miraculous day.  Big things were going to happen.  Something special was in store.  I began to think and say aloud: I can't wait until tomorrow. I did not realize that the biggest factor in "tomorrow" was if the Lord willed us to live to see it.  Everything, each and every day rested in the will of God.  So, what about today? How about some reframing.  "The Lord has blessed me with today. He allowed me this day."  How about doing something in the now. Procrastination is a thief.  It is a threat to hope....
Post a Comment
Read more