Life Lessons from my Childhood

When you look at your life you realize that you are a product of all the experiences and lessons life has taught you. Today I want to share one serious lesson from my maternal grandfather and a humorous lesson from a friend I went to school with down in Munday, Texas.

David Parham

10/10/20269 min read

Stock picture. Not my grandfather.

Life Lessons from my Childhood

When my grandparents started out their lives, credit was not readily available, and you only bought what you could afford and pay for. To the best of my knowledge, both sets of grandparents came to Knox County and cleared land and started farms without ever borrowing any money.

I have mentioned that I got my first job out of college because of my grandfather Parham never ever borrowing a penny to buy lumber to build barns. It influenced the administrator of the hospital to hire me because he worked at that lumber yard in Seymour where the owner of the yard each year would attempt to sell my grandfather one extra wagon load of lumber and pay for it with the money received on next year’s crops. Grandpa always said the same thing. If I make money on the crops next year, we will buy more. If not, I won’t owe you anything.

As a child I was influenced by both sets of grandparents, but by the time I got out of college I was hung up on using credit. A recent book I read said credit cards could be traced back to the garden of Eden when Satan tempted Eve to not trust God but do it his way and be smart. Not sure that is accurate, but we do know that the average family owes over $10,000 in credit card debt in America today. The inheritance I should have had to leave to my children and grandchildren was pretty much paid to car companies and banks my first 50 years of life.

But Praise God, at age 50, I met Dave Ramsey and with God’s help turned my life around. It took almost 20 years to pay off the huge $365,000 hole I was in, but with God’s help and grace we made it. We have not had a car payment in 25 years and by God’s grace I will never have another one. We are servants to our habits, and I have done my best to create new habits that glorify the Lord.

For the last 723 days, we have had no debt, and it has been the best 2 years of my life. I wake up refreshed and happy knowing I don’t owe any bank, credit card, or car company a penny. Even our house is paid off. Was it easy to break the bad habits? Absolutely not, but I prayed and asked God to help me, and he has changed our lives. I had to learn to wait on purchases, and make do with what we have.

Paul talked about how he had learned to trust God and do things God’s way.

Php 4:10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.

Php 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Php 4:12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

The Apostle Paul didn’t have much, but he knew where to look for his strength and sustenance.

Pics of actual hoe that my grandfather used. Hoe has to be over 100 years old and still works.

My first life lesson was my Maternal grandfather J. W. Ward. The inspiration came from the work he did with his old garden hoe. He was a small man but could pretty much outwork any person I ever saw. My dad marveled and told stories about how he could pick more cotton than any other man he ever met.

I called him Papa, and he had a 2-acre garden there in Goree, and if you came over at 8am, he could be found hoeing and watering his garden. If you come at 2pm in middle of summer at 109 degrees, he was out there hoeing. One little hoe and managing 2 acres of garden land.

While everyone else bought a tractor, he never owned one. Year after year he would sharpen that hoe and had it cut down from 4” to about 1 ½” in width. I used to gaze at the hoe as a child and wondered how an old man could use one tool to do so much. He never wore fancy suits or fancy clothes. He was always dressed the same. Khaki pants and Khaki shirt. But his determination, hard work, contentment, and never showing need for anything fancy or shiny had an impact on my young life.

I think I appreciate his example in life much more today than I did when I was growing up. I should have stuck to his old ways, but went the world’s way in my 20’s and 30’s. You don’t need much to be happy when God is in your life and you are led by the Holy Spirit. I was shocked to find out after Papa’s death that my mother wound up with that hoe, and now my sister Janette has it at her house. It’s a symbol of freedom to me.

Pic is not Larry’s 55 Chevy. His car was old and burgundy, not shiny like this one.

My second life lesson also came from something that happened in High School at Munday, Texas involving a friend named Larry Darter. He was one year older than me, and he left Munday after graduation with my two cousins, Bobby and Ronnie Ward and went to work at General Dynamics in Ft. Worth(as I remember). Back in 60’s, the average monthly wage was about $500. They were making over $3,000 a month. My cousin Ronnie came home with a 1963 Ford Galaxie with a 427 big block motor with 2 four barrel Holley carbs. It was so fast it could pass anything on the road except a gas station. My other cousin Bobby came back in a super-fast ’64 Shelby Cobra Mustang. But Larry left in his old beat-up 55 Chevy, and came back in it.

Months went by and one Saturday night, I was riding the loop at Munday with Larry which was about all we had to do back then. No youth center, no video arcade, or anything like that. You rode the city marker signs on each side of town and then back. We were listening to an old 8 track tape of Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash.

I looked at Larry’s gas gauge, and it was showing empty. I said, “Hey Larry, I think you are about out of gas.” He said, “Yeah, we are, but I think we can make one more loop.” So we did and then pulled in at the all-night Shamrock filling station when gas was 25 cents a gallon.

Guy asked Larry what he wanted, and he said $2 of regular. Then I saw something I had never seen before. Larry pulled out a roll of bills of more money than I had ever seen with a rubber band wrapped around it. It was 2” thick. He went through the thousands, then the hundreds, then the 50’s, got down to the 20’s and found a dollar bill. Pulled it out. Rolled past the 10’s and 5’s and found one more dollar.

He paid the attendant $2 and we resumed our ride. I looked in amazement at him and said, “You know Larry, I know you, Bobby, and Ronnie are making a lot of money. And I understand that you don’t have to spend it all. But I have a question. If you have thousands of dollars in your pocket, why in the world would you buy $2 worth of gas? Why not fill it up?”

He smiled and said “Oh David. With an old car like this, you never know if it will make it to the next block. You wouldn’t want to leave it stranded on the side of the road with a full tank of gas overnight.”

Is that great or what? I figure Larry was a millionaire around the age of 35, but I don’t know if he still drives that same car.

So what did I learn from Larry Darter. You don’t have to spend every penny you make. You can be happy while others waste their money like I did in my early years.

I try to read the book Walden by Henry David Thoreau every year. It is a story of a man who with his own hands built a cabin by the Walden lake and proved that life can be simple and you can be happy with very little. My favorite quote from the book is this: “For a man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. As long as possible, live free and uncommitted. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail. Either way you are committed.”

I don’t know about you, but I want to be free and uncommitted.

While I realize that my decisions are based on convictions from all my life experiences, it does not mean that anyone else necessarily needs to do it this way. But when the decisions align with God’s word and commands, I think they are worthy of consideration.

Rom 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

Pro 22:7 The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

Lam 3:26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

I lived 70 years doing things my way. These last 5 have been so much better as I have followed God’s rules and plans. I look to Christ as my example, not man.

Both of these two life lessons taught me the same thing, but I didn’t fully understand them as a child. Looking back after the many years, both lessons taught me this: Learn to live with what you have, never use credit, save over 30 percent of your earnings, and you will always have plenty. Huge volumes of dollars are not needed to be happy and content.

1Ti 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

Brother and good friend Sean Simpson just returned from mission trip to India in September 2026. He preached last Sunday night on the sayings of ancient wise man Agur.

Pro 30:7 Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die:

Pro 30:8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:

Pro 30:9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

Agur was wise in understanding that riches do not make us, but they can be a big hindrance and a stumbling block. What we do for God is what counts in this life. The richest man on earth was King Solomon and he summed it up in Ecclesiastes. All is vanity unless God is first in our lives.

Ecc 12:8 Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.

Ecc 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Ecc 12:14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Advantages of Living by Scripture and Guidance of Holy Spirit

1. You have Total Contentment.

2. You look to God and pray about every decision, small and large.

3. You Fear no man as God is your strength

4. You learn from mistakes and try to never repeat them.

5. Start each day in the Word of God and end the day in the bible.

6. You don’t let failures of the past define you. Go forward like Paul explained in Philippians Chapter 3

Php 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

We all need to develop patience and look to God for all things.

Psa 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Jesus has set me free. By God’s grace, I intend to stay free for the remainder of my years here on earth. I am happier and more content today than ever before in my life. I can absolutely say I do not want anything. My goal now is to glorify God with my life, and have the ability to help the church and give to missionaries. With simpler life and no debt, we have more time to spread the Gospel, and spend time with our grandchildren and great grandchildren.

(1Co 15:58) Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

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