Eat Whatever Your Momma Cooks, and Be Grateful: A Country Boy’s Philosophy on Life

By Billy D. Green

Eat Whatever Your Momma Cooks, and Be Grateful, A Country Boy’s Philosophy on Life is a continuation of inspirational and thought provoking stories from the author of Not Just Beans and Cornbread. These short stories are meant to help the reader appreciate and adjust to life’s changing situations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796058505

Billy D. Green

Billy D Green grew up on a small family farm near Stuttgart, Arkansas. He graduated High School in 1966 and studied at Southern State College before getting married and pursuing his first career of farming as a share cropper for 24 years. He served 6 years in the Army National Guard. He has served in numerous capacities as a community and church leader thru the years. In 1994, he quit farming and began his second career as an insurance agent. Billy is married to his wife Nancy. They have four children between them and 5 grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2019 by Billy D. Green.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2019913755

ISBN:       Hardcover                                   978-1-7960-5852-9

                 Softcover                                     978-1-7960-5851-2

                 eBook                                           978-1-7960-5850-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 09/11/2019

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CONTENTS

Eat Whatever Momma Cooks

A Study of Sweet Hour Of Prayer

Bullies Always Come Back

Derby Winner

Easter

Firestorm

Fort Bliss Prayers

It’s All A Game of Chance

God, Are You Even Listening?

Don’t Let The Good Times Pass You By

Heart Healthy

I Can’t Fix Stupid

Instruction Are Printed, Sometimes

Lucky

Memorial Day

Music

People Only Count

Pride

Questions Of Life

Roots Ain’t Just For Trees

Service

Size Matters

Speed

Stained Glass Puzzle

Thanks For Your Service

That Look

The Crow

The Old Esquire Grill

The Right Question

Things Hard To Find

Unsung Hero

We Once Were Fearless!

A Currier And Ives Christmas

Choose Which You Feed

Disposable Razors

In Search Of Happiness

Lessons From Farming

It Was Just A Pet

Pets Are Family To

Education or Just Learnin?

With Age Comes Wisdom … Sometimes

Pushing The Limits

Storms

The Game of Life

People Are Like Fish

Against The Wind

Why Teach Hate?

Perceptions

Leftovers

Preacher or Salesmen

In Control

Genealogy Research Ain’t New

Getting Lost

Posers

Politics Vs. Common Sense

Be Thankful Even When

Dealing With THAT Day

Never Lie … Unless You Have To

A Lesson from the 70’s

We Are Not Average or Are We?

Live Life As A Squirrel

Christmas Hopes

It’s All A Game of Chance

Life’s A Journey

Say What You Want

Know It All’s

We Have Tipping Backwards

What’s Next?

Only A Dream

Where Is MY Miracle?

The Good Shepherd

Mobility

Lord, Have I Got A Deal

Learn To Enjoy Life In The Middle

It’s Only Words

Faith, God’s Grace and Trust

All Quarterbacks

To Each His Own

Irish For The Day

Is Your Cup Half Full

Just Enough

Dreams

Drive Kindly

Straddling the Fence

Not Just A Title

Looking For More Heroes

God Bless America

Rocky and Bullwinkle

Just As I Am

The Collection Plate

Ain’t Life Grand

Eat Whatever Momma Cooks

I was the youngest of five children growing up in the 50’s and 60’s. In rural Arkansas. We were an old fashioned household. Dad farmed and Momma was a stay at home mother. This was a time shortly after WWII and regardless of how hard it got money wise I don’t think there was ever a discussion about Momma getting a job outside of the home. After all, they had both seen plenty of hardships, and money, as short as it was at times, was the least of them. By the time I was old enough to remember much, my 2 oldest brothers had graduated high school and gotten jobs and later joined the military, they had started their own lives. That’s what you did in those days. There wasn’t time to routinely go to college for an unknown profession. That was reserved for specific occupations, be it a doctor, lawyer, nurse or accountant and so forth. There were only so many executives needed in the world and that wasn’t for everyone but that was ok too. We lived in an old 2 story farm house. Momma and Daddy had a bedroom downstairs and us 3 kids sleep upstairs. We were blessed. We had running water and a single bathroom, thankfully indoors, so no one expected anything but to wait in line. If it were urgent you were free to go outside and don’t worry about the neighbors, not that we were crude but the nearest neighbor was a mile away. Most days started at daylight. Now that’s not sunrise, daylight is as soon as you can see to walk out to the barn without tripping over the dog sleeping on the sidewalk. Oh by the way, the sidewalk was a wooden board laid on the ground from the driveway to the back porch. Nobody and I mean nobody ever came to the front door except an occasional salesman who hadn’t learned country ways yet. That rough, uneven wooden sidewalk proved to be a slight problem when us kids were finally able to get some clip on shoe skates after saving S&H Green Stamps for what seemed to be forever. That old wood side walk just didn’t scoot like we had expected. Back to a normal day, there wasn’t any of that darling children it’s time to get up out of bed routine. It was more like a drill sergeant yelling at the foot of the stairs it time GET UP! It wasn’t that we were not loved but things just didn’t get sugar coated much. Besides for most of those early years there was no heat upstairs and the main heater was in the living room down stairs, so on cold mornings, once we were stirred it didn’t take a lot of encouragement to get downstairs by the heater. When we got up, Dad was usually out doing some early chores and Momma was cooking breakfast. There were no pre made anything to pop in a microwave (those Radar Ranges would not come along for another 15 years or so) although we did have an electric toaster. I remember when canned biscuits came out, now THAT was a big deal. Breakfast was always good, fresh eggs from our own chickens, salt pork or bacon raised on the farm for food supply not pets and stored in the smokehouse out back, sometimes pancakes but I don’t EVER remember asking what’s for breakfast or dinner or supper for that matter. For those who might need a little clarification, in the country, dinner is what you might call lunch and supper is what you might call dinner. That it doesn’t matter what you call it but you learn to come eat when it’s ready. You know it’s going to be good because you didn’t lose your appetite snacking on stuff between meals. What’s for breakfast, dinner or supper was always the best we had, it may have been all we had or the best meal Momma could put together given what she had to work with, so don’t bother asking. There were no special orders. If you did not like something, that was fine just skip that item. We were expected to help Momma get the table ready to eat or help her cook when she needed it. That brings up another lost art from the day, how to pass food. When a meal was ready to eat, everyone ate together at the SAME time. Wow, that’s an interesting thought. We all came to the table, sat down and waited. No one started until everyone was there. Remember, there was only 1 bathroom so plan ahead. The food was placed on the table and after a blessing, everyone then began filling their plates, then passing the food to the person next to them. Whether it was to the left or right is still a mystery to me but just play along but don’t pass it in both directions. Passing food at the table seems to have been lost to a fast food, eat on the go, grab and get lifestyle of today. Daddy worked in the fields most days and Momma cooked. She cooked breakfast, then started cooking dinner which may be served in the house or taken out to the field wherever Daddy was working. As soon as that was out of the way, it was time to wash clothes in the new modern ringer washing machine, hang the clean clothes on the cloths line out back, tend to the garden, gather eggs and start cooking supper. There wasn’t much time for frills in those days. Life, it seems, consisted mostly of life. That life may seem harsh to those growing up today in our wonderfully spoiled world we find ourselves in. Today is a much less labor intensive world. The modern conveniences that have come along have indeed spoiled us beyond all dreams. That has come with some negatives such as Momma’s gotta work to help pay for those microwaves and cell phones and x boxes and new cars and new houses and the list goes on. The bottom line for all to remember, that will almost always make our lives easier, is simple. As young kids, teenagers, college students, college grads, adults, spouses, regardless, if Momma’s cookin or Daddy’s cookin, they are doing it on top of everything else they have done all day long, Eat Whatever Momma Cooks and above all else, BE GRATEFUL!

There is always something to be thankful for. Don’t ever forget to look for them

A Study of Sweet Hour Of Prayer

I love this old staple of Christian hymns. The closing lyrics verse 1 are; in seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief, and oft escaped the tempters snare, by thy return Sweet Hour of Prayer.

The word snare caught my attention as we sang this song in church recently. Now, I’m not a seasoned trapper of wild game but I grew up around trapping. A snare is a trap. The snare trap that comes to mind is usually a cable or rope that is placed in a path that your intended catch travels regularly. In this case, the intended catch is the writer of this great hymn or any one of us. This trap may be a loop of sorts, that is just large enough for us to easily start thru but just small enough to entangle us so that we can’t escape. I have often said that the devil knows what flavor of sin to bait us with. He also doesn’t come with horns, a pitch fork and a red cape, but usually comes dressed as everything we always wanted. A snare trap has little chance of success unless it is placed just so. It works best when placed in our usual paths or a path that leads completely in a different direction if some type of bait can lure us down that path. The snare has to be concealed to where we really don’t know what we are getting into until it’s too late. We go our own ways everyday with little consideration that our normal steps are possibly cluttered with traps. But, as careful as we are, cleverly disguised traps are all around us.

Just as a trapper of wild game seeks to capture the most unusual catch with his snare trap so does the devil. There was a comedian back in the 60’s named Skip Wilson whose byline was the devil made me do it. A line from the Rolling Stones song goes, I’m just a soul whose intentions were good, oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood. The very best souls with no intentions of leaving the paths of righteousness can be, many times, the devils most sought after trophy. Try as we may, none of us are good enough to avoid all snares and many times we can’t escape by our efforts alone thus comes the last line in this verse by thy return Sweet Hour Of Prayer. Despite our best efforts to solve things for ourselves don’t ever forget those last few lyrics, by thy return Sweet Hour of Prayer".

Bullies Always Come Back

I have sadly watched the hate being spread in today’s world. I watched thru the years as we made progress in agreeing that we are all different. We have different back grounds and cultures. I agree to respect your writes and pray you respect mine. Growing up thru the 50’s and 60’s, there were bullies back then as well. We have tried for many years to overcome their influence. Much to do has been said about the ill effects of the bullies. It seems that regardless how many bullies we put behind us, bullies always come back. I personally watched as, thankfully, the signs disappeared that said We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. It seems that some bullies want that to return.

Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV says

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

It seems that bullies have always been with us and Bullies always come back. Solomon likely was the author of Proverbs 6 around 700 B.C. It would appear that we have not learned much in some 2700 years. These words could have easily been written today. It matters not what side of any issue you sit, the wisdom in this scripture still applies. Let’s look at the things God hated even in 700 B.C.

I’m sure that I have personally been haughty before