"How is your spiritual life? How is your prayer life?"

Seven years ago today my grandfather, Alvin H. King (Mo), passed away.

Today is a hard day, a day of sorrow and rememberance. When you are young you don't really have a grasp on death and you feel like everything will always be the same. You believe the people that are in your life will always be there. Even when you find out someone in your family is sick you push it to the back of your mind and believe that everything will turn out fine. The next thing you know your whole world has been turned upside down and you cry out to God "Why would you do this?" and wonder if it is even possible for life to go on.

If you didn't know my grandfather then you truly missed out knowing one of the greatest men to ever walk this earth. I'm not just saying that because he is my grandfather. My grandmother, Ruth King, once said that if there was ever a man that had every excuse to go "bad" it would have been my grandfather. His father died before he was born and his mother died when he was sixteen years old. Mo would always say it was the saddest day of his life coming home to an empty house without a mother or father. They were dirt poor. One year for christmas his mother went out into the yard and searched for the prettiest rocks she could find in the yard and wrapped them up just so that Mo and his brothers would have something to open for christmas morning. Mo even signed up for athletics just so he could get a shower. His mom made his clothes out of potatoe sacks and he loved to tell the story about being picked on about his clothing and throwing the boy out the window of the bus. Through all of lifes ups and downs my grandfather found God and clung to him with all of his heart, mind and soul. He would tell me over and over that God is the only thing you can depend on because things of this world are fleeting, here one minute and gone the next.

He was the hardest worker you ever saw in your life, nothing and no one could hold this man back. He walked from Meadow Texas to Cisco Texas (a four hour drive) by foot just to teach his grandchildren self disipline (he was in his seventies). One year when I was in college at SMU I needed barbwire for a project I was doing. He drove all night and showed up a 5:00a.m. with the barbed wire. The year he died, before we knew he was sick, I had to work Christmas Eve and then also the day after Christmas. I didn't think I would be able to make it home. I didn't get off work until 11:00p.m. Christmas Eve and Mo drove all the way to Austin to pick me up and then we drove all the way home...we arrived in Brownfield at 7:00a.m. I was able to have Christmas for the last time with him, though I didn't know it at the time. He then drove me all the way back that afternoon. What greater love?

I could go on for hours with stories but I know my time is limited.

My grandfather was a great mentor for all of us spiritually. He knew the whole bible by heart and could quote just about any scripture from memory. The most important thing he taught me was how to pray. He would always call and ask three questions "How is life?", "How is your spiritual life?", and "How is your prayer life?" With him it was always a good time to pray.

You know how God can bring beauty out of ashes? It's true. Even though Mo's death marks a very painful moment in my life it also marks one of the most beautiful moments as well. Up until that day my faith had meerly been the faith of my families. Not my own. I knew what to say, and I carried my bible like I brought up and taught to do. But on March 1st my faith was put to the test. I remember laying in bed that night crying myself to sleep and being so angry at God. I was ready to wash my hands of Him right then and there. I had a decision to make. Either I was going to turn my back to everything my grandfather had taught me or I would hold on tight and find out who God really was. I took my first step toward God with a broken heart and a trembling hand. It didn't come easy, but it came. My grandfather had trained me "in the way I should go" and I followed his example. Now I believe with all my heart, soul, and mind. I fully understand now what Mo used to tell me now about putting my faith in things of this world that are here one minute and gone the next...by doing that I am left with a broken heart. When I put my faith and hope in God alone he binds up my broken heart and leads me home.

God does bring beauty from the ashes.