THERE WAS A daddy who had nine big strapping sons that formed the starting lineup of the best team that ever played baseball…

The daddy was the manager, and always found fault with anything his sons did. Let one of his sons hit a home run and he would say something like, “Boy, he put the ole’ apple right down the middle, didn’t he? Blind man coulda hit that one. Your grandma coulda put the wood on that one. If a guy couldn’t hit that one, there’d be something wrong with him, I’d say. Wind practically took that one out of here, didn’t even need to hit it much.”

And if you think that was bad, you should have heard him when one of them made a mistake. It was obvious that this wasn’t “home on the range,” because there was always a discouraging word. His sons could never please him, and if they did, he forgot it. When his oldest son, Edwin Jim, Jr., turned and ran to the centerfield fence for a long fly ball and threw his glove forty feet in the air to snag the ball and caught the ball and glove, his daddy said, “I saw a man in Superior, Wisconsin, do that a long time ago, but he did it at night and the ball was his a lot harder.”

THOUGHT: Those boys could have used some encouragement. What is true of sons in general is true of sons of God.

19 “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:19-25

–Mike Benson