We called them katydids because that is what they seemed to say, those insects that sang their noisy song on those hot and sweltering west Tennessee nights. We were a farm family. World War II was raging; of course, there was no television. Even the radio was silent, saving the battery mostly for scheduled news programs.
So, we sat on the little front porch of our small, four-room house and talked about the events of the day—how much we had gotten done in the fields, about the young man who had farmed the field next door until he was drafted into the Army. He was later killed at Normandy.
After a while, we would begin talking either about what we had learned in last Sunday’s lessons or what our Sunday School lesson was about for the coming Lord’s Day. After a period of Bible discussion, we would break out in singing some songs that we sung a lot at the little church where we attended. Sometimes a neighboring family would walk over and join us.
These, even today, are still some precious memories of my childhood. It was in such times on the front porch that we children learned of the need to take and fulfill responsibilities—to be honest, to always strive for moral purity and other great principles from the Bible. Thirty, forty or fifty years from now, what kind of memories will your children have of their childhood?
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:5-9 NKJV)
Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)
