Pick Temple's Rangers

[toad]

“Life becomes what you believe it to be.
Anonymous

If you would have asked me when I was seven or eight years old, what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have told you a Forest Ranger. I think I got this idea from a children’s TV show that was on in the Washington D.C. area in 1953. I still have a little wallet size card that says that I am one of Pick Temples Rangers. I held on to this dream for many years. After graduation from High School and serving in the military, I attended college. The idea of becoming a forest ranger had faded and my studies led me in the direction of my new passion, music. In 1974 I received an Associates of Arts degree, and soon found myself looking for work. I was hired by the city of Kansas City, Mo. as an equipment operator, watering trees that had been planted along the streets and parks. This rekindled an old dream. I soon was planting trees and during the next three years I helped plant over twenty thousand street trees in the city. I also learned the skills of trimming and removal of trees, which led to fifteen years of working in the field of tree care. Today when I go to Kansas City and travel down streets where I worked, I see trees that have grown for the last thirty-three years and I am amazed. At the time of planting, I had no idea of what the outcome would be thirty-three years later. “Life becomes what you believe it to be.” Twenty-four years ago, I believed I needed a Power greater than myself in my life in order to survive. Today I need and enjoy the fellowship of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the written Word. I believed, and it became life to me. God is doing for me what I could not do for myself………….toad

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
ROMANS 1:16-17 NIV

[best]

What a wonderful reminder of my past. When I was a landscaper and we would plant out a yard, we see the finished project of our efforts but not the final project. It takes time for things to grow. I remember wanting to go back a year later to some sites and see how our efforts transformed.
God maybe sits up in heaven and as He watches over us, He sees us transform. A gentle whisper given a few years back and He looks at where I am at today... transformed.

He can already see the finished product as He can see through time. Just as in my landscaping days... I am looking forward to visiting what I will be like when the final product has grown to completion.

I guess in another way you lived that dream as well... Army Ranger...Toad Sir.