A Methodist Woman Stopped Me From Drinking

Ephesians 5:18 - Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead be filled with the Holy Spirit. (New Living Testament)



We all hear today of 'random acts of kindness' and 'paying it forward. It doesn't cost a dime just to talk to someone and we never know what a profound change we can make in the life of someone with only a few kind words. This is a story of one such simple statement and the difference it made in my grandfather's life years later.



(As told by Happy Tom Brooks in his own words)

When I was a little boy playing along the side of the road one Sunday morning the people was coming from church. I was a little bare foot, fatherless boy. I thought if I had my head down so I couldn't see them, they wouldn't see me. A good old Methodist woman walked over to where I was playing and laid her hand on my shoulder and said, "Tom, if you will be a good boy someday you will go to a land where you will have a father." While I was in Indianapolis, Indiana the boys I run with at home, and growed up with, they went to the shows and to the fair and had a big time. They would come in nights talking and laughing and telling what a big time they had. I was trying to save my money to send mother, to help feed and clothe the other children. I didn't have any money to spend to have a big time. Them boys kept coming in at night, talking and laughing about what a big time they was having. That got me all tore up. I became so troubled I decided to drink my life away; to stay drunk the rest of my life. I went to the saloon to start drinking. When I stepped up to go into the saloon, I heard the voice of that good old Methodist woman that spoke to me when I was a little boy, "Someday you can go to a land where you can have a father." I turned back out of the saloon door crying. I cried all day and might nigh all night and that kept me from starting to drink. I never drank anything intoxicated since that.

My First Experience With Credit

Matthew 5:42 (KJV) Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow from thee turn not thou away.

"Mother was sick. We didn't have any bread. Mother told Nannie we didn't have anymore bread and she was sick and not able to wash and get any money. I cried and worried might nigh all night studying and worrying about where we could get something to eat. The next morning I went to town early to a small store. I told the merchant of the store that I wanted to buy a barrel of flour on a credit and charge it to me and when I get to work I would pay him. The old merchant looked over his glasses and said, "Tom, I'll sell you this barrel of flour and if you pay me for this, come back and get anything else in the store on credit but if you don't pay me for this don't ever ask for anything else on credit. I went to the old man who had raised this merchant's wife and told him what I had done and wanted to know if he had anything on the farm I could do to earn some money. He put me to cutting corn stalks while he was plowing the ground, 12 hours a day for 50 cents a day. I cut stalks a week. He let me off a little early on Saturday evening. I took my $3.00 he paid me, in my pocket and went down to the store. When I went in to the store the merchant said, "Can I do something for you?" I told him I wanted to pay some on my account. I give him the $3.00. I shore felt good about that.

My First Restitution

Psalm 69: 4-12 (NIV)
  4 Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head: many are my   enemies  without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal.
  5 You, God, know my folly: my guilt is not hidden from you.
  6 Lord, the Lord Almighty, may those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me;  God of  Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me.
  7 For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face.
  8 I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother's children;
  9 for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.
10 When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn;
11 When I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me,
12 Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards.

Yeah, even back in the Old Testament days people were scorned, picked on, bullied for being different or not "fitting in." A belief in God would get you ridiculed and belittled just as it does today.

We hear so much of this today, especially with our children being bullied or picked on for not fitting in. Maybe it's the clothes they wear, the way they talk or maybe just for not "going along" with the crowd. Teach them this is not the way to be treated or to treat others.

My Grandfather tried to fit in as he was ridiculed by his friends for his belief in God and it caused him tremendous pain as his story continues:

"A neighbor woman come to our house and said, "Mrs. Brooks, I heard about your little boy getting saved. When he grows up he might kill somebody or get drunk or do something mean. He had better go join the church and be baptized and then he will still be in grace." But that didn't work. The boys that I run with got to calling me preacher. I got out of grace and backslid. Then I went on for about a year. I stold a rock drill, about 14 inches long, from a man. I lost it and I couldn't take it back. I had been praying diligently for three months and six days for God to take me back. He wouldn't forgive me until I made restitution. I was a little ragged, fatherless boy and had stold the drill from the wealthiest man in our town. I couldn't face that wealthy man and make restitution till a boy that I run with went to the alter trying to get saved. Early the next morning I went to town, a little over a half a mile from where we lived. When the man opened the door and let me in his store early the next morning, I told the man what I had done. I only had 23 cents in money and tried to pay him the 23 cents and told him I would pay him the rest as soon as I could get it. I told him I didn't want to live in hell here on earth and then die and go to hell. He said, "Tom, I forgive you." He wouldn't take my 23 cents. Then I went back home. He closed the store and went back home and called his wife and children in the room and told them what had happened. he said, "It is time that we was making a change." They went down on their knees and five of them got saved, him, his wife, two girls and a boy. He told the Doctor out of town; the Doctor got saved and went to preaching. A great revival broke out in that little town. When I was 12 years old I went to West Virginia and worked at the coal mines. Then I came back home and cleared new ground."

Samantha Was Baptized

Matthew 3:11  I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:



"We would get firewood and rails to build fences. I had a rope that went around my neck and down under my arm and tied it to the wood and snaked it to the house. I also tied the rope to a sled, when there was snow on, and pulled the sled up the hill, loaded it with wood, push it over the hill and it would run down the hill to the house by itself. Mother was sick and Samantha was doing the cooking. The wood we was getting to cook with didn't satisfy Smanth. She wanted to go with us to get some good wood to cook with. I pulled the sled to the top of the hill. We got a big load on top of the sled, pulled the sled to the edge of the hill to push it over the hill. Smanth had on a old, big sweater, the sleeves was rolled up and she was pushing the sled. We told her to turn loose of the sled when it started down the hill but she wouldn't. She wanted it to get a big start. She got her sweater sleeve hung over the standard on the sled and it jerked her down. We thought the sled was going to run a straddle a sharp rock down the hill and bust her brains out. Charley went to praying. The sled missed the rock and run through the wash pond at the foot of the hill and "baptized" her. Charley went to shouting when she got "baptized". She never did bother us no more about getting wood."