Well, I didn't say hi to Johnny, but she snuck
in and we got some others here. Good. Thank you.
Appreciate you coming.
You honor me by being here today. And if you
will, please forgive me if I blunder because
that seems to be kind of my way to handle things.
We're going to have a good time and we're going
to talk about some things that will be, I hope,
be of interest to you.
But before we do, you know, most of us, except
this young lady right here, are reaching up a
little bit higher in the age scale.
And I found something here that tells about how
you know when you're growing older.
You know, I don't guess we maybe need that, and
yet with our short memory, maybe we have to be
reminded every now and then, you know.
But here's how you know when you're growing
older. Everything hurts, and what doesn't hurt
just doesn't work, you know.
And then the gleam in your eye is from the sun
hitting your glasses. You know, that's very typical.
You feel like the night before and you haven't
seen, you haven't been there yet.
Your little black book contains only the names
of M.D.'s, and you get winded when you play chess.
Your children begin to look middle-aged.
Got a daughter going to be turning 50 this year.
I can't believe I've got a daughter turning 50.
You finally reach the top of the ladder and
find that it's leaning against the wrong wall.
And then you join a health club and then don't
go. Does anybody do that?
You decide to procrastinate, but then you never
get around to it, you know.
Your mind makes contact your body can't keep,
contracts your body can't keep. I'm sorry, my
reading is terrible.
You know all the answers, but nobody asks you
the questions.
And you look forward to a dull evening. You
know, just sit at home and do nothing.
It doesn't ring any bells to anybody but me. It
probably doesn't.
Your favorite part of the newspaper is 25 years
ago today, or 50 years ago today, as with the
wall drips here.
The best part of your day is over when the
alarm goes off.
You burn midnight oil after 9 p.m. The fortune
teller offers to read your face.
The little old gray-haired lady that you help
across the street is your wife.
You get your exercise acting as a pallbearer
for your friends who exercise.
You sink your teeth into a stake and they stay there.
So you know, hey, are we getting older or what?
Now on a serious note, you may have seen this
or you may have heard this,
but it sets the tone for what I'll be talking
about today about our climate in America today.
This was prepared and read on the program by
Paul Harvey. I'm sure you've heard him.
And the title is, If I Were the Devil.
If I were the devil, I would gain control of
the most powerful nation in the world.
I would delude their minds into thinking that
they had come from man's effort instead of
God's blessing.
I would promote an attitude of loving things
and using people instead of the other way around.
I would dupe entire states into relying on
gambling for their state revenue.
I would convince people that character is not
an issue when it comes to leadership.
I would make it legal to take the life of
unborn babies.
I would make it socially acceptable to take
one's own life and invent machines to make it convenient.
I would cheapen human life as much as possible
so that the life of animals are valued more
than human beings.
I would take God out of schools where even the
mention of his name was ground for lawsuits.
I would come up with drugs that sedate the mind
and target the young, and I would get sports
heroes to advertise them.
I would get control of the media so that every
night I could pollute the minds of every family
member in my agenda.
I would attack the family, the backbone of any nation.
I would make divorce acceptable and easy, even fashionable.
If the family crumbles, so does the nation.
I would compel people to express their own
depraved fantasies on canvas and movie screens,
and I would call it dirt.
Excuse me, art. Boy, I blew that one. Art. Come
right in.
I would convince the world that people are born
homosexuals and that their lifestyle should be
accepted and marveled.
For these that came in, I'm reading what the
devil would do if I were the devil and what I
would do against America.
I would convince the people that right and
wrong are determined by a few who call
themselves authorities and refer to their
agenda as politically correct.
I would persuade people that the church is
irrelevant and out of date and the Bible is for
the naive.
I would dull the minds of Christians and make
them believe that prayer is not important and
that faithfulness and obedience are optional.
And finally, I guess I would leave things
pretty much the way they are.
That's a pretty good indictment on the world we
live in today, and that's what we need to
consider today.
First, I'm going to touch on this major problem
in America today.
I'm going to explore some possible solutions,
and then I'm going to encourage you.
You came here voluntarily, but I'm going to ask
your help, and I want your help as we move forward.
What is the problem? Well, let me just ask the question.
Of course, I've already introduced it with what
Paul Harvey said, but are you satisfied with
the moral and ethical climate in America today?
All I can do is just shake my head that way.
So what are we doing about it?
Can anybody do anything about it, and what are
you as an individual doing about it?
That's the question that you can ponder yourself.
President George Bush, the previous President
George Bush, the first one, said, whatever form
our most pressing problems may take,
ultimately, all are related to the
disintegration of the family.
So we've got to keep these points in mind.
Donald Thomas, in his book, Blinded by Might,
made this observation, our most pressing
problem is not the federal debt, but a deficit
of time and attention that parents give to
their children in increasingly violent streets
and schools,
and in broken homes the cry of angry souls is
not for more laws, but for more conscience and
more character.
Doug Poley, one of our brethren, who is a CBS
News reporter for many years, made this comment
not too long ago.
He said, I am worried about America.
America could be dumped on the ashes of decline
in the 21st century.
All of these vices are a direct result of
turning away from God.
The problem is the moral and ethical climate in
America today, as I've already alluded to.
We are admonished in Psalms 78, verses 5 and 6.
He decreed statutes for Jacob and established
the law in Israel, which he commanded our
forefathers to teach their children so the next
generation would know them, even the children
yet to be born, and they in turn to tell their children.
So passing down the heritage of the family and
these kind of things is very fundamental from
the biblical standpoint.
Dr. James Dobson made this observation.
Grandparents have been given powerful influence
on their grandchildren if they will take the
time to invest in their lives.
Another of the great contributions you can make
is to preserve the heritage of your family by
describing its history to children and
acquainting them with their ancestors.
The lyrics of an old African folk song says
that when an old person dies, it is as if a
library burns down.
Good thought. Good thought.
You and I have information, wisdom, knowledge,
experience, tough times, good times that we
need to share with those younger generations.
The question that I asked, how many of you have
something today that was given to you by your grandparents?
Okay. All right.
You are in the minority.
And I'm not talking about being willed to you
or given to you when they die.
I'm talking about when they were alive and they
gave it to you probably as a child.
You're rare when you have been blessed that way.
But that's one of the points of this
conversation today is to help you to realize
how valuable you are to your children and to
your grandchildren.
And don't ever forget it.
Then I'll ask the follow-up question, have you
made plans to do something about giving
something to your grandchildren?
Think about it.
Let me ask you this.
Do you agree with it?
One hundred years from now it will not matter
what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I
lived in, how much money I had in the bank account,
or what my clothes looked like, but one hundred
years from now the world may be a little better
because I was important to a child.
Think about it.
Youth and age make a good team.
Age has much to give, youth has much to give,
and working in partnership, they make a great team.
For instance, here's some examples.
The experience of age and the enthusiasm of
youth combined together makes a great team.
The wisdom of age and the initiative of youth.
The caution of age and the courage of youth.
The poise of age and the purpose of youth.
The skepticism of age and the confidence of youth.
The practicality of age and the idealism of youth.
The contemplation of age and the action of youth.
So parents, grandparents, and their
grandchildren can make a great team.
So what can we do to share these family values
that we're going to be talking about with our
kids and with our grandkids?
That's the question.
Dr. Stafford North up at Oklahoma Christian
University in the March 1999 issue of Christian
Chronicles made this comment.
Ministering to families is critical to the life
of any church.
Strong families make for a strong church.
While Heaven, not good relationships, is the
ultimate goal, strengthening families certainly
has eternal implications.
Good day-to-day living in the family can
nurture the faith of children and give them an
understanding of the qualities of God.
Thus stronger families create an environment in
which persons can become more faithful
individuals who in turn contribute to another
generation of stronger families.
This generational handing down of faith through
the experience of families has always been at
the heart of God's plan to teach his people.
David Gergen said in the U.S. News and World Report,
As Americans we owe an extraordinary debt to
those generations who have brought us to the
edge of a new promised land.
Their sacrifices not only brought us a good
life, but through war and hard times kept those
values alive.
Our Judeo-Christian values are now the greatest
gift we can pass on to the 21st century.
Does what we sow matter? Does it make a difference?
The Bible says it does. Galatians 6:7-9.
Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. A man
reaps what he sows.
The one who sows to please his sinful nature
from that nature will reap destruction.
The one who sows to please the spirit from the
spirit will reap eternal life.
Let us not become weary in well-doing for at
the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do
not give up.
How do we cultivate the minds of youth?
What kind of tools do we have with which we can
cultivate the minds of youth?
Planting good seeds is the key that we have and
then we've got to cultivate it.
I'd like to do a little parallel here about
planting a vegetable garden and then planting
these ideas in the minds of youth.
For instance, in the vegetable garden you've
got to have soil, good soil or any other soil,
but the better it is the easier it will work.
You've got to have a plow, you've got to have a
hoe, you've got to have a rake.
It takes time and effort. There's no way that
you can have a garden without putting time and
effort into it.
You've got to have seeds such as peas and
squash and lettuce and those kind of things.
Then you fertilize it and then the good Lord
provides the sunshine and the rain.
Then you've got to go back and chop out those
weeds so there's more work, more effort, more time.
Then you have the results of a beautiful harvest.
The child in being taught these things is very similar.
You've got to have a mind of a child, the
opportunity with the mind of a child.
You've got to establish rules and limits and
instructions that are very important.
You've got to put time and effort into it.
You can't just say, go thou be warm and filled
as the saying goes.
The seeds that you plant are the Christian
family morals and values that we have and that
we live with and try to uphold.
The fertilizer is the love and prayer that is
offered in their behalf.
The sunshine and rain is God's word.
That's the thing that produces the crop in reality.
We are just the custodians of it.
Then you've got to go back and chop the weeds
by correction, love, chastising, and nurturing
these children.
And then when this is all done, then you have a
child that is well adjusted and is truly a
citizen of the heavenly kingdom.
Remember, man's character and his garden both
reflect the amount of weeding that was done
during the growing season.
So that means that children must be corrected.
And it's so unfortunate that years and years
ago, parents were taught that you might bend
their ears a little bit if you spank them with
a baloney.
Whip those suckers with love, with love.
In the vegetable garden, these are some things
that you might want to plant.
Plant three rows of Squash, squash dishonesty,
squash grudges, and squash seeds.
Then you may want to plant three rows of peas,
patience, persistence, and priceless character.
Then plant seven rows of lettuce.
Let us be unselfish and loyal.
Let us be faithful to duty.
Let us search the scriptures.
Let us not be weary in doing good.
Let us be obedient in all things.
Let us love one another.
And let us be thankful and gracious.
And then no garden is complete without turnips.
Turnip for church and prayer service and Bible study.
Turnip with a smile, even when things are difficult.
And turnip with a determination to do your best
for God's cause.
Why do we need moral values?
Would you like to suggest?
Why do we need moral values?
Got you.
Who else?
We show the contrast, don't we? Yes.
Great basis for decision making. Beautiful.
Well, this is the thing that, you know, when
you kind of stop it and back off and begin
to think as you put together some thought
processes, you kind of go back and have a
lot of things you just assume.
Well, we assume that moral character is good,
but that's the reason I wanted to ask you
why do we need it?
I then came in with five little things that
just suggest some further reasons why we
would need moral values.
First is to live a peaceful, happy, and
productive life.
To do God's will.
That's pretty strong, I'd say, right there.
Treat our neighbors as ourselves.
Help those in need.
And then the ultimate bottom line, go to Heaven
when we die.
Those are the kind of reasons we need to have
good moral ethical values that we
teach, promote, and live.
What are we doing to teach these moral values?
Are we leaving the hearts and minds untilled as
we suggested in the atmosphere of
planting a garden?
Are we sure the good seeds are being planted?
Are the rules and boundaries and limits being
set for our youth?
So what kind of harvest do we hope to get from
our efforts or whatever efforts we're making?
I know you're just like me, you love your
children and you love your grandchildren.
You want to do what's best for them and you
want to really do the things that will
make them a better and useful citizen, a better
father, a better mother.
And of course we're taught that in Proverbs
22:6, train the child in the way he
should go and when he is old he will not turn
from it.
And that's, you know, that's bedrock.
That's good stuff.
But, and I know that you're like me, you have a
good heart, but you know at times
we get distracted and we put off till Manana.
We procrastinate until the afternoon so we can
procrastinate till the next day.
We put things off and we have good intentions,
but that's the thing that I'm
trying to get nudged a little bit to the side
and look through that curtain of
what can I do?
What can I do?
Effort and time and resources are required to
do a good job.
And we'll be getting into this program that
I'll be talking with you about to
pass family values down to the next generation.
And of course I've already done this for my
nine grandchildren right here and
they obviously are very special to me just as
yours are very special to you.
And when I put this together, I started doing
it for them, when I put this
together I wound up with over 70 books that I
would get information out of to
help support this program and it would take me
six to eight hours on each of
these pages.
And I did 52 pages in volume one and 54 pages
in volume two.
So as I said earlier, some time and effort is required.
But that's, the grandkids are what makes it all worthwhile.
What Grandpa says is a thing that I started
with my nine grandchildren back in
August of 1997.
I wanted to do something special for them and
so I got a loose leaf notebook
and in that notebook then I would put in select
themes for the week that I
wanted to talk about and I'd find scriptures
and quotes and sayings and humor
to support that idea of that theme for that week.
But it is a book dealing with Christian values,
dealing with using wit and
wisdom to share these kinds of things with
these young people.
It is designed for parents to give to their
children when they maybe leave home
for the first time, like coming to ACU to
college or Harding or wherever they
may be going or they leave home for the first
time to go into the military or
they get their job.
But leaving home for the first time, that's a
good way to use it.
Also then grandparents can share with their grandchildren.
And my nine grandchildren all live 400 miles
away from me and I didn't have
much influence except just periodically, maybe
two or three or four times a
year at the most.
So I wanted to do something special for them
and I wanted to share with them
some of these things that I felt like that I
had learned through the school of
hard knocks and suggest the wisdom and love and
patience and experience that
I could share with these youngsters.
And so that's why I began, Grandpa said.
It was a fun thing to do.
It took a lot of time and effort, as I've
mentioned, but it was one of those
things that I just felt like was so very
valuable and important to me to be
able to speak to these youngsters.
They raised an age at the time I was doing this
from age 5 to age 21.
So that's a pretty good spectrum there.
It is a storehouse of Christian family values
and wit and wisdom.
And as I've said, it is designed as a tool to
help cultivate the minds of youth.
And as the illustration here says, what Grandpa
says echoes through the years.
Those are the kind of things you keep coming back.
I know, and I'm sure you all do this too, but
my father had a lot of little
homespun type things to illustrate points as he
was going through life.
And I picked those things up and I used them
many, many times.
In fact, some of those quotes are in my
Grandpa's head.
Parents have the primary responsibility to
teach the children, but grandparents
cannot, they won't be taken over and taken
charge of that teaching, but they can
undergird and support what Mom and Dad are
doing to teach these kids.
That's important, and that's the kind of thing
that Grandpa says will provide.
Now, I have passed out six sheets to six of you
people, and I would like to,
as I call on you to do so, pick out two or
three or four of the little quotes
on the page that you find particularly
interesting and share those with the folks here.
The first one is wisdom.
Grandpa says wisdom comes from God.
Who has that?
Thank you.
Well, that just kind of gives you a little
flavor of the one dealing with wisdom
comes from God.
And then the next one is stiff discipline is rewarded.
Who has that?
All right, please.
Thank you.
Very good.
And then the next one is Grandpa says be a
person of integrity.
What is the right thing to do?
Good, thank you.
And the next one is Grandpa says don't carry grudges.
Beautiful, thank you.
And then the next one is okay, grow mentally,
spiritually, and physically.
Okay, please.
The prophet of life said to be a growing,
consisting human being.
And then the next one is okay, grow mentally,
spiritually, and physically.
Thank you.
And then finally the sixth one is Grandpa says
opportunities dwell in problems.
All right, please.
Thank you.
Well, that'll just give you a little flavor of
what's there.
Also, I usually put on, it's pretty front and
back, and I usually put on the back at the
bottom a little touch of humor,
dealing with that theme for that week.
And that humor leaves the person that reads it,
the youngster, with a happy feeling,
an uptick about it that is very unique and very good.
I'll just tell you briefly about three little
stories that are true stories.
Jennifer, my 21-year-old granddaughter at the
time, was going to Mississippi State,
and she had a roommate that would usually get
back to the room by mid-morning on Fridays when
the mail would arrive.
And the mail was there, and the roommate would
get there.
My granddaughter had not yet gotten out of classes.
And so the roommate would get there and see the
mail laying there.
And I would have mailed the Grandpa says to my
granddaughter on Wednesday, she'd get it on Friday,
and the roommate would see Grandpa says laying there.
And she couldn't wait until my granddaughter
got there.
She would open it up and read what the Grandpa
said for that week.
So the 21-year-old, the 5-year-old, Little
Bradley, right here,
I had one that's in my volume 2 that said,
Grandpa says, mind your manners.
And about a month after that, my wife and I
were visiting with him and his family,
and we were going out to a restaurant to eat food.
And Little Bradley goes up ahead and opens the
door and holds it open for his grandmother, my
wife, as she goes in.
And he says, I'm minding my manners.
These kids pick it up.
Now, he couldn't read what was sent at 5 years
of age,
but Mom and Dad sat down and had a little visit
time with him to explain what this meant and
what it was and read it to him.
But Bradley picked it up, and we just thought
that was great.
Then a third story, again a true story.
A lady over in East Texas at Jasper where we
once lived had a son that was graduating from
high school,
and he had signed up to go into the Navy
immediately out of high school.
When she found out that Grandpa says it was
designed to send one page every week for a
whole year,
she said, well, I want one of those.
I want to keep up with my boy, and I want to
make sure that he, she was a Baptist, a good
one, and that's fine.
But I didn't want to.
I'm going to send him the label.
I don't live too far away because his name is
Bradley and he doesn't care for us or his n
ratio of N.
I put one in the window every time.
So, it wasn't a big deal.
He-he might buy a riffle right off the bat, or
maybe he-he didn't want anything nice.
Thank you.
Mama, I get Grandpa says and I get it here and
I start reading it and then some guys see what
I've got and they gather around and start
reading it with me and one of them takes it
over here and passes it to Pete and to Tom and
Jerry and Joe said it takes a whole week before
it gets back around to me through my barracks.
Now these are boys that just come from the
world and yet they were impressed by it. They
thought there was something there of value and
they enjoyed seeing and reading it.
There's a great quote from Proverbs 4:10-13.
Listen my son and accept what I have to say and
the years of your life will be many. I guide
you in the way of wisdom and lead you along
straight paths. When you walk your steps will
not be hampered. When you run you will not
stumble. Hold on to instructions. Do not let go.
Guard it well for it is your life.
And that's on the front title page of Grandpa
says. But that says the essence of what we're
trying to get over today. Proverbs 4:10-13.
The cost of Grandpa says of course I know I'm
not selling them here but I have a booth set up
over there in the exhibit hall and if you care
to learn more about it you can come there and
we can do whatever you think is appropriate but
it costs less than ¢50 a week to send this to
these youngsters.
¢50 a week and that's less than a coke today.
But I would like to say this very sincerely and
in a genuine way whether you utilize the value
that you may or may not find in Grandpa says do something.
Do something for your grandchildren. Pass down
these kind of values to them. Use your own
abilities. Use your own research and that's
great and I'm for you. I've done it and it's
worked but it's worth it.
It's worth it. So I would like to encourage you
to do something regardless of whether you use
what I have or not. Passing these values down
is the key to doing it and I have one of my
pages and Grandpa says that says be a doer.
And so therefore Grandpa is saying be a doer
and do something now. Don't put it off till
tomorrow. I'm the kind of guy that wants to do
it now and if you'll pardon my personal
experience in October I went in October 11th I
went in for a catheterization to see what was
going on in my heart.
And they put the dye in and they took the x-ray
and that's all they did. When I woke up the
doctor came to me and said I'm sorry I don't
have good news for you. All of the stents that
we had put in in March which was nearly a year
ago have scar tissue on them and we can't do
anything about it and I cannot repair it.
Well I said well what's my option? He said well
that's open heart surgery. So I said well how
soon can we do it? He said well let me see what
we can do. We have two good heart surgeons here
in Abilene and so the next day we had five
bypasses put in last October 12th.
Well I'm the kind of guy that if I'm going to
do something do it. Make something happen. Get
with the program however you want to describe
it. You've been there? Okay. All right.
Well that's exactly the way I am and I really
believe that if a person and of course you know
I didn't want to worry about it. If the Lord is
going to call me home okay I'm ready. Let's go.
I'm ready. But if you're not well then let's
get on with the program. Get it done. Don't
worry about it and just move on.
That's the way I am about Grandpa. Do something.
Enough preaching. Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh did you?
Okay. Fantastic.
Let me explain to him to you what he's talking
about. This is Grandpa says right here. Now
this is the bound volume of volume one right
here. It has just a yellow sheet on the inside
but once you open it take off the shrink wrap
and then you and take off the covering page
then this is what it looks like.
And I'll go through the process and then we'll
get to your point there. But this Grandpa says
create it especially for and you put the
child's name right there. You honor the child
with their name on it. Okay.
Is your name important to you? It's important
to them. All right. Now as we go inside you
have to be careful because there's some loose pieces.
Here's there's two of these that are envelopes
and it says keep for weekly mailings. So we'll
lay that aside for the moment.
And here's the here's the page two through 52
so and it says keep for weekly mailings so
we'll lay that aside.
And then here's a large envelope that I'll
explain just in a moment and then other
envelopes make a total of 52 envelopes.
Then we come to the start right here. It says
start here. You know that I like to make things easy.
At least try to. And so I said start here. And
so that kind of tells me what maybe that's what
I want to do.
You know so you start here says give the three
ring notebook to the and these pages to your
loved one the first week.
You also may want to write a covering letter to
introduce this whole program to the youngster.
And therefore I have put together included in
this a sample beginning letter like this
pattern after what I wrote to my grandkids.
And it's among other things said in here it
says your flesh of my flesh and your bone of my bone.
Therefore you're very special to me. You're
going to be facing some trials and tribulations
through life.
It's going to be difficult but I'd like to
share some things with you that may help you
get over some of these speed bumps in your lifetime.
So as a result this is a suggested letter but
you write whatever you would want to introduce
the thing and tell them that they're going to
be receiving it one page every week.
All right. So we get that done. And then after
we get that then we take this off.
And here is that proverb quote that I mentioned
and read earlier right here.
And then we come in to pay the next page and we
deal with the topics a different topic each week.
For instance the grandpa says protect your
family name.
And under that are the scriptures and quotes
and sayings as we have experienced here already.
The next one number two is grandpa says honesty
page number three.
Love is the greatest commandment number four
obey authority number five wisdom comes from God.
So each of these weeks have a different theme
and I'll just suggest them others then skip
down a responsibility is yours.
Establish goals courtesy. Be courteous at all
times. Shame hurts.
Use time wisely. Control your tongue. Kindness enriches.
Gentleness makes you strong. Serve others. Be happy.
Persistence doesn't quit. Seek good role models.
Your choices become you. You create
opportunities. Be dependable.
And then I did skip over be a doer. I said it's
number 18 right there if you need to know that.
OK. Your attitude is your choice. So you have
each of these various things with those quotes
and scriptures and sayings.
Very short. Very simple.
Then the acknowledgment page acknowledges my
wife and my secretary who did a fabulous job on
helping me put this together.
I acknowledge my nine grandkids and then as I
told some people here a while ago I had a my
10th grandchild granddaughter
was killed in a car wreck here in Abilene in
1996 and so I've dedicated that to her memory.
So that's obviously from my standpoint makes
Grandpa says very special.
And then of course to use these quotes that I
have used and some of them I have to get
permission so I've done the homework there.
Also I've got a listing here of my what some of
my nine grandkids said about grandpa says.
And so that's there for whoever might be interested.
Then we come to page one. Grandpa says protect
your family name.
You have a good name honor it and keep it clean
and that way you honor your mom and dad.
Do nothing to tarnish your family name.
And then going on down a good name is better
than fine perfume. Ecclesiastes 7:1.
And then what this gentleman talked about here
I leave three blank lines not because I'm lazy
but I wanted to give you the giver a way to
personalize this for your child or grandchild.
That's what those lines are for. And so to stop
and think of what you're going to say.
Now I've suggested that if you have a family
quote that deals with that theme for the week
naturally that jumps out real quick and that's good.
But a lot of time you may not have one so you
can write a love note.
You can write a congratulations on winning your
ballgame or becoming a cheerleader.
You know whatever that would apply to that child.
But put it in your handwriting because that's
part of this heritage that you're developing.
That's part of the history. That's part of the
treasure that you're going to have developed
with that grandchildren.
But it's front and back one page goes out.
Another way that you personalize this is it has
two vinyl photo pages and a whole eight photographs.
And I had pictures made with each of my nine
grandchildren and I put one in their book.
Look what that would be worth to them 50 years
from now 30 years now long after I'm gone.
That makes this a family treasure.
So that goes the first week along with some
kind of a covering letter in this large
envelope that is provided.
So you mail that off that first week.
Then the second week you've held these says
keep a weekly mailing. You pull out page two.
You pull out one of these other smaller envelope.
Grandpa says honesty pays.
You write some something down there to
personalize this and away it goes.
Away it goes. So you do that as a routine every
week for 52 weeks.
Now I don't know whether you've got the
discipline or not to do that.
It takes discipline to remember that every time
on Monday morning I'm going to have to get that
thing out and I'm going to have to figure out
what to write there.
What am I going to say.
But that's that you know these kids are worth it.
And then as they accumulate these then they put
them in the loose leaf notebook and they keep
that notebook with their name on it.
They'll never throw that away. They'll never
give it away.
They'll pass it down as a family treasure
through the generation.
So that's why I feel that grandpa says is
something more than just a scooter or a savings
bond or a popsicle.
It's something that has eternal implications
though it's not designed to teach you how to
become a Christian.
I don't get into that at all.
This is how to live a good Christian family life.
That's what this is all about.
Do you have any questions that I could maybe
answer at this time.
That has been asked and my answer is twofold.
One is that Marianne says that she's not going
to do it.
She's my wife but seriously the other one is
the fact that I think from your standpoint of
grandpa is generic in terms.
He exudes love, patience, experience, been
there, done that, made my dumb mistakes and I'd
like to help share some better suggestions to you.
That kind of an atmosphere so whether it is a
grandmother that is actually sending it to the
grandchild or not it still can apply from a
generic standpoint.
Well five years old, little Bradley, did I tell
about him? Yeah I told about him.
Well I'll tell you another story. You know
President Don Morris of the ACC at the time,
his son Tommy Morris has bought, Grandpa says,
and he sends it to each of his four children to
then share with their children.
So Tommy Morris has a Don Morris son, maybe
you're aware of that, but Don has three little
girls, four, six and eight years of age.
And Don told me one day, he says that when he
first got the first page in in the loose leaf
notebook and grandpa says to protect your
family name,
Don told his little girls we're going to have
some fun and we're going to be doing this every
week and we're going to be talking about these
various things and this week we're going to be
talking about protect your family name.
And he got the girls kind of trying to define
protect and they were kind of struggling with
it at that age.
And after a little while the little four year
old got a little impatient and said dad, when
are we going to start having fun?
So you never know quite what's going to come
out of what you say and what you do, but it's
just a great way to share with these kids some
special things.
Any other questions?
Yes, and it can be set up as a kind of little
family devotional to a certain degree.
You're a family gathering and we're going to
sit down and we're going to talk about these
things. So very simple, very short, very much
to the point.
When you have a more than one grandchild in the
family, then what do you do?
Well, what do you do when you put one child's
name there?
You have to have a book for each child.
And the point being that if this becomes a
family treasure with their quotes they receive
from grandma and grandpa, they're going to want
to keep it.
If you share one with two or three or four
kids, who's going to get it when they move out?
And of course I'm in the business selling books
and yet that's not my point. My point is that
each one of these nine were special.
I sent every one, there's three children in
each of these families, but I sent one to every child.
And that was very important and it had their
name on it. So personalizing it for that
specific child is the key, yes.
Any others? Yes, look.
Let me see if I can find my note. Here we are.
Yes, plant three rows of Squash, three rows of
peas, seven rows of lettuce, and don't forget
and be sure to plant turnips.
Yes, yes. I have the volume one and then the
volume two is right here and it does not have a
notebook because these pages will fit in the
volume one loose leaf notebook.
And of course as the envelopes are used weekly
then that reduces it down to just the pages.
And these pages, there's 54 pages in here in
volume two, I got to the end of the second year
and I had two more things I wanted to discuss.
One was don't forget your roots and you're
going to be flying away. And when you fly away
you've still got roots that you need to remember.
So that's the way this ends. I probably will
not be doing any more because I'm probably
going to get into the subject of grandpa
remembers and begin to tell things that I
remember and things I did and where I lived and
what I've done.
So that's personal, that's family. That won't
be published at all obviously.
But it's something that I would like to
encourage you to do. Write down incidents about
your life and pass that down to that younger
generation. That's important.
Very good. Anything else? Yes.
I just want to say I have a memoir written
about my great great grandfather. And then I
have one that used to my aunt wrote, my
mother's name.
And then this year I wrote my memoir. Good for you.
I gave it to the children but the grandchildren
were there and some of them said I want to talk
about that too. Yes.
That's rich. That's good stuff.
Twenty two ninety five plus tax for the volume
one. Twelve fifty for the volume two because it
doesn't have the loose leaf notebook and
therefore it's less expensive.
But I will be over at the booth at the exhibit
hall if you care to come by there after I
finish my second class here. Anything else?
Well you've been most kind and most patient and
I thank you.
And if anybody has any children who are going
to college now, this blue brochure is the one
that kind of focuses on that.
It says parents can share family values every
week. So that's what the ACU was kind enough to
invite me to provide them four thousand of these.
They sent them to all the parents of the
students that go to school here. So I was
honored that they would allow that.
And then on the very back back here there's a
quote of what other people have said.
Kim Huggins is a second grade teacher over here
at the Abilene Christian School. Prentice
Meador, maybe you've heard of him.
Maybe you've heard of Royce Money. Maybe you've
heard of Harry Pickup Junior. Bill Teague.
Howard Norton.
So they have honored me with some thoughts
there that are on the back of the volume one.
It's the same product. It's just a different
approach. Different approach. Yes.
Well, I thank you very much. And if you'd like
to stay around and visit a little bit, be glad
to. Otherwise, you're welcome to go.
Thank you.
Very cool.
Thank you.
That's a great idea. Thank you, Sir.