They Believed in Me (Part I)

I was thinking today (yeah, that’s dangerous) as I was riding back from Hutchinson where a friend and I went to a meeting. We had been talking at the meeting (a meeting of ministers) about the grace and love of God. As I pondered the comments made at the meeting, my mind wandered just a bit. I began thinking about times in my life when someone believed in me and helped me in some way. Many times we think that we make our own successes, and we certainly have a lot to do with it; but my guess is that most of us can not say that we have made our success without help from someone, somewhere, some time.
When I think about those times, I think about Mr. Nixon, who invited me to play my tuba solo as a high school junior at a recital at Emporia State University (then it was Kansas State Teachers College). My older brothers attended there as music majors, and I’m sure Mr. Nixon was trying to recruit me. I didn’t attend there, but he gave me a much-needed boost in my self-esteem at the time and prompted me to make some decisions after that I probably would not have made otherwise.
I think about Mr. Davis, the Vice Principal of the high school I attended, who would sign me back into school as excused after an illness or being away helping Dad on the farm just on my word…not requiring a signed note or phone call from my parents (which was the policy to avoid an unexcused absence). I quickly learned what truth, reputation, and dealing straight meant, and carry that lesson with me even today.
I think about Mrs. Groves, my vocal music teacher in grade school, who would place me beside other kids who couldn’t sing quite as well, or in a section that wasn’t doing so well because she knew I could help those around me learn the music and sing the notes correctly. I didn’t understand what she was doing until I was well into the sixth grade (I was rather dense then as well as now). But when I understood what she had been doing for several years, I worked even harder for her.
I think about my Dad the first time he asked me to drive the pickup from one place to another on the farm, and the first time he asked me to take the tractor out to the field and disk about a 20 acre patch. He was taking a chance…and didn’t say anything to me about it…just told me to go do it. But we both knew those events were a milestone in my development.
I also remember when Dad told me to go to the pasture and bring the cattle into the lot. I had never done it by myself before, but had been with him many times when he did it or we did it together. It took me awhile to get ‘em all going the same direction, but I knew that there was one or two “leaders” in the herd, and that I needed to get those leaders going the right direction and find the cattle path they and other herds used to go to the corral. I was successful at that, and when the lead steer found the cattle path, he settled in and led them all to the corral…my taking up the rear. I was so pleased (and relieved).
There were others in my younger years…these are just some. More in a later post.