I can only speak for myself with any degree of authority. I was blessed by God Almighty to have been fortunate enough to have been birthed and raised by a wonderful, beautiful, loving, and caring stay-at-home mom. Her name was Katherine “Kitty” Severn. Mother and Dad were very active and involved with the raising, teaching, and educating of our family. Mom was in my eyes a “Saint.” She was always loving, caring, soft-spoken, kind and considerate, purposed, and always performing random acts of kindness to any and all people who seemed to be in need. Mom was the epitome of integrity, servanthood, and a loving and caring demeanor of always doing the right thing no mater what!

Mom was beautiful. Her long jet black hair cascaded down over her shoulders and gave a great and impactful accent to her dark brown eyes and big smile. Her pearly white teeth shone in the brilliant natural or artificial light and expressed without her saying one word,…. “Hi, I love you. Is there anything I may do for you?” Kitty was indeed a fine example of what it means to be a real Believer in the Lord, Jesus. Her Christian beliefs as developed through her childhood were readily displayed on a daily basis through her words and actions. She was an example to be learned from and to be followed in a safe and secure manner.

Both the husband and the wife,…the mother and the father,…are to be in submission to one another and to be combined in a joint team effort of raising and educating their own children. Such was the manner and way that I grew up in Southern Idaho during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. My mental and physical environment was superb. It was classical. It was godly, and it was and remains indelible to this day within the confines of my own mind. The admonition of God as recorded within the pages of the Bible ring loudly and clearly in my mind today as they are recorded in the Book of Proverbs, Chapter 22, verse 6, NIV:

“Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

So whose personal responsibility is it to train up a child in the way he should go? I say to you that it is the responsibility of the parents of the child in question who are to do the actual training up of the child. All parents and children have personal rights and responsibilities. If either of them (the involved parties) gives up, shirks, or refuses to take up their personal responsibilities as given them by God Almighty, then the self same party, must also give up their individual rights of ownership. That all means that if you do not perform your God-given responsibilities, you will also, by default, sacrifice your God-given rights.

I continue to thank God everyday for giving me to the parents He did. They were such a great and glorious example and teacher to me and my siblings. There was no such formal activity as “Home-Schooling” when I grew up in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. I learned directly from Mom and Dad by verbal instruction, and by observing the fine example they always set for us kids. The very same things and much more that I was taught in the public school systems of the 40s, 50s, and 60s showed up in my personal “on-site” education provided to me by my parents. But there is a whole lot more to receiving a good all around education than just book-learning in the classroom. Most often my parents would actually take us kids to the very location where actual events occurred and then explain to us the how, where, and why certain events or activities happened there. It is always good to know what and where important historical events occurred, but when you travel to the actual site, walk the surrounding ground, get introduced to the involved personalities, and learn the why and the how things and people actually performed, the educational process is magnified and solidified into your own brain, and buried into your subconscious mind, never to be forgotten. The human mind is an incredible thing. Once something is entered into it, it never loses or forgets what was allowed in. It is always good to learn the recorded facts of an event, but it is a much better thing to visit the site of the event, if possible, and allow your knowledge and imagination take over and magnify your understanding and experience. I can read about and look at paintings concerning all aspects of the Lolo Trail in North Idaho and that is wonderful thing. But,…it is much more wonderful and meaningful to actually go to the Lolo Trail and walk or ride along its pathway to the actual places where the events surrounding it really occurred. I can read about the Lewis & Clark Expedition which floated down the upper reaches of the Clearwater River in North Idaho, but it is much more exciting, stimulating, and educational to float down the river myself,…to experience what it was actually like because I have done the same activity on the cascading walls of water turbulently flowing westward toward the Snake and Columbia Rivers and on into the Pacific Ocean.

Children learn best from observation. Experiencing the educational event only adds to the experience and makes it more meaningful.

I truly loved my Mother and Father. They were fantastic influences on me and my siblings. I thank God they provided so much to me as a I grew, matured, and learned from their wise methods of educating, equipping, and empowering us kids for the world that lay before us.

In the closing months of my mother’s life, we shared some of our most intimate moments. She always had and maintained almost to the end of her life, a great and keen sense of humor. One day while we were talking quietly, I asked Kitty, “What can you leave to me that would really be meaningful and impactful for the rest of my life?” I went on further to explain that I would really like her to leave me something besides the contents of her Last Will and Testament. I desired to have something special from her that I would cherish for the rest of my life and be able to pass on to my children and grandchildren that would help and assist them in becoming better men and women, better husbands and wives, better grandparents and great grandparents. She smiled as only she could,… and then replied, “Well, David,…let me think about that for a day or two and I will see what I can come up with.” The following week when I was once again visiting Mom in her assisted living apartment, she presented me with a hand written note on a single sheet of typing paper. Her penmanship was almost perfect and her lines were without a flaw. I could actually feel her love drift right off the page of her short letter to me as I read it and soaked up the wisdom of the Lord, and her motherly love. Below is her note…I included it in the Eulogy I gave at her funeral two months later. I share it with you in hopes that her special love and spiritual gifts will also bless you and anyone else whom you might know and who by chance might read it too.

THE TOP

You are at the top when you have made friends with your past. You are focused on the present, and optimistic about your future. You have the love of friends and respect of your enemies.

You are filled with faith, hope, and love, and you live without anger, greed, guilt, envy, or thoughts of revenge.

You know that failure to stand for what is morally right is a prelude to being victim of what is criminally wrong.

You are mature enough to delay gratification and shift your focus from your right to your responsibility.

You love the unlovable, give hope to the hopeless, friendship to the friendless and encouragement to the discouraged.

You come to know that success, a win, doesn’t make you,…and that failure, a loss, doesn’t break you.

You can look back in forgiveness, forward in hope, down in compassion and up with gratitude.

You are secure in who you are, so you are at peace with God and in fellowship with man.

You clearly understand that yesterday ended last night and that today is a brand new day and it is yours.

You know well that he, who would be the greatest among you, must become the servant of all.

You are pleasant to the grouch, courteous to the rude, and generous to the needy because you know that the long-term benefits of giving and forgiving far outweigh the short-term benefits of receiving.

You recognize, confess, develop, and use your God given physical, mental, and spiritual abilities to the glory of God and the benefit of mankind.

You stand in front of the Creator of the Universe and He says to you, “Well done thou good and faithful servant!”

Peace and Love to All of You…………………….Poppa Bear