Fuel for the Fire

For a number of years now, I've tried to put some advice in effect each day given to me by Mrs. John R. Rice of the Sword of the Lord and my dear and treasured friend. Her husband, Dr. John R. Rice, was often on the road preaching and speaking in meetings far and wide and traveled much of the world during his long and blessed career. She was a wonderful wife, mother of six girls, a tireless worker in ministry, especially to women, kept a warm and hospitable house open to all and was perhaps the best example of a true Christian I've ever met.

I had the joy of working for Dr. Rice for some 15 years in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and was pleased to be in their happy home on the Texas styled ranch in Murfreesboro on many occasions. Both of the Rices were big on having the Sword team over for games, food and fellowship, along with Dr. Fairy Shappard, Advertising Director for The Sword and long-time personal assistant to Dr. Rice, who taught me the ropes of professional Christian ministry and Dr. Viola Walden, who was a brilliant scholar and dutiful assistant to Dr. Rice for many years. Dr. and Mrs. Rice had horses for guests to ride and my children especially loved to mount Dr. Rice's favorite, General Douglas MacArthur and ride throughout the acreage.

Lloys Rice was not made of the same cloth as many of today's modern preacher's wives. She never thought she was "special" because she was Mrs. John R. Rice, nor did she desire to be treated any differently than any other women in the church or whatever group she was working with at the moment. She was revered by many, but never really seemed to know it, and was respected by all she met. One of her beautiful gifts was that she deemed each person she met as a special creation of God and found a way to determine the good in that person. I suspect when we get to Heaven, we will find that Mrs. John R. Rice has a great reward for her role in building the Kingdom of God.

Mrs. Rice said that when she got up in the morning and looked at her day and its many duties, she needed something to help get her going. She kept many books, most open to a favorite passage or quote, by her chair in the den, on her dining room table and by her bed. She made it a practice to read one thought, one Scripture verse or one quote each morning before leaving the solitude of her room. She said she needed a little "fuel for the fire" before facing the day. I've gathered up various quotes, sayings, Scriptures and thoughts that have helped me during my life journey and I share them in a personal column I write for The Examiner published in Beaumont, Texas, much as I did during my days at The Sword of the Lord. I trust they will be a blessing to you and that you will turn to the blog each day for a thought for the day.

Here is Fuel for the Fire for the last two weeks of June 2008. I've included a number of fishing quotes in honor of Father's Day. If this becomes a feature of the blog site of interest, I will continue including the quotes and bits of character-building advice, which I've learned to love and depend on over the years.

June 13 – “It is not the fish we catch that counts, for they can be had for mere silver. It is the break of the waves, the joyous rush of the brook, and the contemplation of the eternal rush of the stream.” - Herbert Hoover

June 14 – “Find the journey’s end in every step.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

June 15 – “Your headiest success as a true angler begins when you start caring more about fishing than the fish.” - Arnold Gingrich

June 16 – “Why do I fish? The easiest answer is that my father and all my ancestors did it before me.” - Former President Jimmy Carter

June 17 – “Experience usually is what you get when you don’t get what you want, but if there were no such thing as optimism, there wouldn’t be any such thing as fishing.” -Michael McIntosh

June 18 – “They are able who think they are able.” - Virgil

June 19 – “The music of angling is more compelling to me than anything contrived in the greatest symphony hall.” - A. J. McClane

June 20 – “In its deepest self, fishing is the most solitary sport, for at its best it is all between you and the fish.” -Arnold Gingrich

June 21 – “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

June 22 – “Never cut what you can untie.” - Joseph Joubert

June 23 – “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.” (Acts 1:14 – Five times in the first five chapters of the Book of Acts we are told the disciples of Jesus were ‘of one accord.”)

June 24 – “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power.” (Acts 1:7)

June 25 – “But ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

June 26 – “As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honor is not seemly for a fool.” (Proverbs 26:1)

June 27 – “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.” (Proverbs 26:4)

June 28 – “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.” (Proverbs 26:12)

June 29 – “As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful (lazy) upon his bed.” (Proverbs 26:14)

June 30 – “Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out; so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.” (Proverbs 26:20)

If you have a favorite quote or verse you'd like me to include, please send it to me at brendacannonhenley@yahoo.com.