July 2008 Newsletter
Ron Kervin
Writer/Author, Motivational Speaker
Noteworthy news:
We plan to begin posting samples of my previous speaking engagements to my website starting in the month of July. It is our goal to have one of my latest speeches posted to the web site within the next few days. You will be able to go online to listen and view at your convenience. Hopefully we will be able to post at least one new speech with a different topic each month. So if you cannot attend one of my speaking venue engagements in person you will be able to follow along by the net.
Isn’t progress wonderful? Perhaps it is not as wonderful as I think because at heart I am still a knuckle-dragging barbarian and technology just seems wonderful to me.
Upcoming events:
I would like to invite you to join with me to wish my country and my grand-daughter Lilly a happy fourth birthday. Lilly’s birthday is on the fourth of July. The date fits well because she is a little firecracker. She is also the light of my life and joy of my heart. You may have noticed that I write about Lilly in some of my newsletters. She is a very special little girl who just happens to have a very special birth date. Happy birthday to my baby girl. I love you, Lilly.
Quote for the month:
Unless you are willing to embrace instruction and change in your life with a spirit of perseverance, your situation in life will never change. Are you happy with your current station in life?
Ron Kervin
Scriptures for the month:
“Before destruction the heart of man is haughty and before honor is humility” Proverbs 18;12
For Your Consideration:
In the spring of 1999 I maintained a secondary residence in the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia. I was there because of my work. I had rented a small townhouse for the time I spent there. This townhouse had a small yard for which I was responsible to keep mowed. I decided to go out and purchase a low cost lawn mower to get the job done. I never in my wildest dreams could have imagined the perseverance of this little mower.
I have always been the type to take care of my material possessions. This stems from my youth and the poverty-stricken conditions in which I was raised. This background coupled with my belief that all things, including money from jobs, are gifts from God and should be treated as gifts. All my vehicles, my home, my toys (Harleys, dune buggies, dirt bikes, horses and other misc items) are very well cared for. I spend time, energy and money to ensure they are well kept. The way I see it is that God blessed me with good physical health, a great country to live in and an active mind so that I could earn money from my labors. I am able to purchase things because God has blessed me with them and if I am to honor him I should maintain these items in the best condition possible.
So it was with this little mower. After each use I would wash it off, clean it up, oil it down and put it away. Each year I would service it by changing the oil, tuning it up and sharpening the blade. I originally purchased this little mower at a department store in Virginia Beach for the sum of $69.95 plus tax. Who in their right frame of mind could have envisioned this little mower almost ten years later still in the kind of shape it was the day I purchased it?
Last weekend I pulled the little mower out from its cubby and began cutting the grass at my main residence in Alabama. I have used this little mower each year since I have purchased it. As I was cutting the grass I was wondering just how long this thing was going to last? I am not exactly in love with this mower as it is lime green in color, the wheels are too small and the engine is underpowered. I purchased it because I thought it was going to fill a need for a short time; I never imagined that if I took care of it, it would still be in good condition almost ten years later. From the looks of it now, it will last me a lifetime and I will not be able to use its demise as an excuse to buy a new riding mower. If I had thought that it would have lasted a lifetime, I would not have purchased such an undesirable mower. I was just looking at the short term.
As I was cutting my grass last week and pondering the perseverance of my lime green mowing machine I could not help but equate it to an area of my life. I choose to use my life as an example because I feel I am the world’s worst offender and failure in this area. It is in the area of relationships with mates and children. God does bless us in our lives with wives, husbands, children, close relations, in the form of kin folks, friends, neighbors and co-workers. If we truly want to honor God then we should care for these relationships in the same manner as we care for those treasured material blessings that he has given us through the labors of our vocations.
Many pilgrims, including me, can easily relate to the hard work that is necessary to earn the money it takes to purchase the material items we then put so much energy into caring for so that they will last us a long time. Those relationships, with which God has freely blessed us, from the goodness of his heart, we tend to not care for with the same degree of intensity. We let our mates go without our attention; we let our children go without quality time spent with them and we let our relationships with others fall by the wayside. Finally one day we look up and we are alone because the blessings from God in the form of our family relationships were not tended to properly.
Speaking for myself I can tell you that it is a rude awakening to discover one day that you lost a very valuable gift that God had given you because you did not take care of it and nurture it. One day when you finally have some time on your hands and you want to invest in those children or that mate, they are not there for you. They are not available to share that quality time with you. I have come to the understanding in my life that the relationships that God blesses us with in the form of our mates and our children require the same amount of attention and care that those material things in our lives require. I have also come to the understanding that we can attain the longevity of relationships with our loved ones if we invest a little time, attention and care each day along the way.
It is my hope that you are looking to fill more than a short-term need and are able to see more than the short term when you are considering your family and other relationships. Will you be able to gain this understanding without having to learn the lesson by trial and failure? If you are just starting out in your marriage or your first child is just arriving, you may want to go out and buy a lime green lawn mower with small wheels and an underpowered motor. Then take care of it each day with the goal of it lasting a lifetime. Each time you care and tend to that mower, invest quality time with your family. When you get too old to cut grass, you will still have a mower in great shape and a family that is by your side. You may not have ever imagined it yet, but by investing a little time along the way, your cherished relationships will last a lifetime.
Blessings to all you pilgrims from me and my lime green lawn-mowing machine.
On the lighter side:
“Despite the high cost of living it remains a popular item."
Anonymous
Parting Thoughts:
If you know someone who would like to receive my monthly newsletter, please let me know his or her email address. If they would prefer to view my newsletters online, they may go to my website at (www.RonKervin.com).
If the word be good, then spread it!
Until next month, may God bless your pilgrimage! May you live long and prosper and may the force be with you!
I can use all the exposure I can get. I appreciate your telling your friends about my work. I also appreciate your support and encouragement.