Life...It's A Story: acceptance

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Why?

First person:

Why?

Why are some of us “better” than others?

Why are some of us so encased in our little bit of pain that we don’t see the harsh trials the “invisibles” go through every day?

Why are some of us the “perfect picture” and others not worth looking at?

Why are some of us so involved in ourselves that we aren’t aware that we’re not the only ones leading lives?

Why are some of us simply “more mature”?

Second person:

Why?

Why are some of us discounted simply because we’re “different”?

Why do some of us act like a splinter in the hand is worse than a bullet in the chest?

Why don’t some of us even own a second glance?

Why are some of our lives nonexistent to others, like we’ve never lived and we never will?

Why are some of us simply “idiots” and “nerds”?

Both people:

There’s beauty in the voice

There’s beauty in the calling

First person:

Whether we’re picture perfect

Second person:

Whether we just blend in

First person:

Even if we’re the life of the party

Second person:

Even if we’re hardly there

Both people:

We’ve been shown, in perfect love,

There are no favorites

There is no special treatment

Only the love that saves lives!

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10 NIV

By Ary Anna Bennett

This poem or dramatic reading was written by my 13 year old daughter.

Life... It's A Story

My blog is a collection of stories from my life. These are the stories that shaped me into who I am today. They are the threads that make up the fabric of my life.

I welcome your comments. Especially if these stories help you or encourage you. Feel free to pass them along to others. If you don't like what you see...feel free to move along to a blog site that will better fit your taste.

Life...It's A Story is not a site for debating theology or politics. Harsh, rude, or hyper-critical remarks will be removed. Let's use this site to build people up not tear them down.

I am not interested in critical comments about grammar or punctuation. I have an editor that will be taking care of all that for me.

My Back Story

Reading about someone else’s life on a blog can be a little confusing; especially if you do not know them well enough to know some of the basic timeline of their life. So I want to share some basic information about my family that will help put my past and future stories in perspective.

I was born in December of 1957 to Julian and Merle Bennett. I had three siblings at that time, Alton (12), Vickie (10), and Tony (3). I lived in Wichita Falls, Texas.

My dad hauled and sold produce and also was a “greaser” (a person who picks up grease from behind restaurants and sells it to rendering plants to be made into soap, perfume, etc.) He was one of five brothers. His father’s name was Thomas. Dad’s mother died when dad was about six or seven.

My mother was a stay at home mom who only made it to the third grade in school. She like, my dad, had a mother who died when she was only seven. Mom had a twin brother named Earl and one older sister. After her mother died her father, Jesse Fair, remarried. His new wife was not kind to mom and mom moved out of the Fair house when she was eleven.

My dad died when I was only eight. He left us with an Oldsmobile 88 that was paid for but no money in the bank. As a self-employed individual he had no insurance and few death benefits. Mom had to go to work to raise me and my brother Tony. Alton and Vickie were already out of the home. Alton was serving our country in Vietnam (he made a career of the Army) and Vickie was on her second marriage already.

Mom had a rough time making it with no husband and few friends. She began to go to bars with her twin brother’s ex wife, Ruth, and started to have some challenges with alcohol. We moved to Fort Worth, Texas. After a couple of years she met a man in one of those bars and married him. His name was James Downs.

Big Jim, as people called him (he became “dad” to me), took good care my mom, my brother, and me. But he moved us on an average of two times every year so we never put roots down anywhere and it was difficult making friends. When I was 14 Jim and my mom had a baby girl. Her name was Stephanie.

Later that year we moved to a little piece of land outside Wichita Falls. We lived there for three years as we built it into a farm. A little bit of stability. I attended a country school with about 100 students in high school.

At the age of 16 I made a commitment to Christ and started attending church. I started working with the youth six months later and went to Southern Bible College after graduating from high school.

I met and married my wife Lisa during my senior year at SBC. We now have seven children. I have served in ministry for 36 years until I recently retired. Now I am homeschooling my children and writing.