4.10-How to live well when life disappoints you

4.10-

Luke 2.

⁵¹ Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. ⁵² And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

John 13.

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

1 Timothy 4.

¹¹ Command and teach these things. ¹² Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. ¹³ Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. ¹⁴ Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

¹⁵ Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. ¹⁶ Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Thought Questions:

Do you have a hard time accepting the way God made your physically?

Is there something you can do to be the best you can be physically?

Is there something you can do to be the best you can be mentally and socially?

My brother Reed Wishard the hard worker.

We are a part of a family that is known for its hard work.  I have a brother, Reed Wishard, who is in heaven now, but he was a good student according to my mom’s diary.  How was he a good student when school was not easy for him.  He had to work harder for a C grade than some of us worked for B’s and even A’s.

My brother, Reed, was a very unusual character.  He worked hard in school, but also in his job with Dallas Power and Light.  He worked on transformers for many years and was good at showing up on time and being there instead of absent.  He was a good team player.  He was rewarded with a good steady job.  At times he got tired of his job there.  It was not a job that made him popular or famous in the world’s way of looking at things.  He got sick and tired of his job at times, but he kept going.  He had learned to persist and keep going in school and in football which was his sport in high school.

My dad taught Reed and all of us that you don’t quit on football after you get started.  He told us we didn’t have to play, but if we started playing in a season, we had to finish.  He taught us that we couldn’t quit because of not liking the coach or having a losing season or things like that.

For most all of Reed’s work life he worked for a good company with good wages and good benefits. 

There were many areas that he was also a good example outside of his work.  He was a husband and father and outstanding uncle to Jeff and Amy showing us how to handle hard things.

He was a bit like me in that he might at times have wished he was taller.  I have jokingly said that I’m not overweight just “undertall” as the cat Garfield once said I think.

Reed was about my height, maybe just a bit taller.  We both had the “stocky” body type.  I learned in my coaching courses in college that there are three body types.  Endo morphic, stout, chunky,  meso morphic, medium,  and ecto morphic, thin or skinny.

The body type I have and Reed had is called stout or chunky or endo morphic.  These body types can be very athletic and healthy.  Reed played football as a guard and tackle in high school as I did.  It was many years I suspect before he was comfortable with this body type.  Our mother had the body type and so it was a part of our genetic heritage.  He worked hard in training in football.  He tried to work on his eating all his life.  He eventually got diabetes and had to have a special diet.  I never heard him complain about being diabetic.

He had serious health issues by the time he was in his fifties.  For a long time he fought these problems of health with a good attitude. 

He kept his confidence in God.  He did not look down on others and was a lover of all kinds of people.  He especially cared for his wife and children.  He also did a good job of caring for my parents.  He loved and respected them.

He trained his mind, heart and body to be focused on being a good example to others.  He did not look down on others and he worked to not allow others to look down on him.  Now this was not easy for Reed because he didn’t have the “perfect body” and who does.  I don’t know about Reed, but I know about myself that in my youth I was bothered that I had been given the shorter height and the stout body type.  My mother taught me a saying, “you may not be the tallest tree in the forest, but you can be the best little bush.”

Reed was taught as I was to not look down on anyone and not expect anyone to look down on you.  Now, some will try to look down on us perhaps, but we need to keep confidence in our hearts.

Keeping a positive self image in this world is not easy.  Television, movies and social media put some people down based on their body type or height or skin color or nationality.  This is not God’s way.  God made all people and all nations and loves them all.  So we should try to be also impartial and non prejudice.

Reed tried to set a good example.  I was nine years younger than Reed.  He did some unusual things to influence me.  Once he took me on his vacation to Louisianna for about a week.  This was because he loved me even though I was much younger than him.  He loved the young and the old. 

Reed was quick with a fun joke and could make you laugh easily.  He was careful with the things he said and if he messed up with his mouth he would apologize.

His life was dedicated to things bigger than himself.  His family.  His volunteer work with the church and with the orphan home were he and his wife Gene served for many years.  He went with his son and daughter to the sports games and was always there for others.

He loved people.  Rich or poor he loved them.  When I was asked him what he thought about me going into the ministry he said he would support me if I would promise to care for and minister to the poor equally to the rich.

He loved the church and the Bible.  I cannot imagine Reed not attending worship with the church unless

he was very ill.  The preachers loved him, but he was not afraid to tell when he differed from them on something.  In his family, his father in law, Gene Lowry, and brother in laws, John Lowry and Bill Luttrell were preachers as well as myself were preachers that he supported and challenged in a good way.

He challenged and supported elders who were leading the congregations where he served.  He spoke the truth as he saw it regardless of one’s position.

He was a person who had much more insight because he meditated on scripture.  That is where he looked for wisdom.

He had some difficulty I think in his younger years to find out what he was “cut out” to do.  That is true of most of us guys.  How long to see what you are meant to be and to do.  He played football for four years and did quite well at it.  He had worked on the farm, but didn’t think he was meant to be a farmer.  He started work with the REA in Bonham and later to Dallas to Texas power and light.  He really wanted to do other things at times, but came to the conclusion that this work was best for his family with the wages and the benefits.  I remember him wanting at times to be a salesman of some new product.  Now he was a good salesman of ideas and especially of spreading the ideas of God, but to be a salesman on a straight commission was not best for his family.  Still, he didn’t find his niche in life it seems to me until he and his wife and family moved to Boles Home to work with orphans.  There he was great at this and so was his wife, Gene.  They set an example of love and family commitment to the kids in their house.

Gene and Reed were both very disciplined in what they tried to teach their children as well as those who were “fatherless”.  They were careful with their lives as they lived their example.  They taught more by their example but also with words. 

They lost their beloved daughter Gena, but kept on serving God.  Their son, Alan, is an outstanding Christian counselor and leader and husband and father.  Their influence keeps expanding.

My notes on his life is to teach and remind all of us.  If you have disappointments in life.  Keep doing the right things.  Stay plugged into your education and work hard.  Be a good team player to your family, your school and your sports team and your workplace.  This is what I learn from my brother Reed Wishard

Larry Wishard

4.10.17