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.
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