A song I heard had these lines….
“You wash me in Your Mercy,
You make me clean”

I recommend listening to this Song……entitled, “Clean”.

Consider people with a heavy history, a past weighted with wrong doing which burdens their minds, hearts and opportunity.
Consider how their vision forward is clouded by the darkness of their earlier decisions.

They need and look for cleansing.

Freedom and Release are things not experienced by those weighted and burdened by their past.

The future, however, is clean….
no decisions made there yet.

Pray for those you know in need of that “mercy washing”.

In theory…. we all need it daily.
Specifically, there are those who have never received it.

Pray specifically for those.

Pray for the “washing” of their minds, to free them from guilt and self-condemnation. Pray for their hearts that they would be strong in the forgiveness received. Pray that their relationships be healed and an opportunity for restitution and reconciliation be available.

Being washed gives liberty from the “dirt”.
Being cleansed allows us to see Light
and walk forward into that clear and clean future…..
awaiting our new decisions.

 

Terry
September 2016

 

In sports one should never enter the arena without a desire and passion to win. Someone will win, someone will lose.

In business, winning is not a zero sum game as sports usually is.
In business, there are, most times, enough chances to allow many boats to rise the tide of opportunity.

In relationships, winning is sometimes losing. If you are always out to win…. you may find your relationships short-lived.
Winning an argument may give you satisfaction in one area…to the depletion of satisfaction in another.

One can win a ” fight” with the spouse…
and destroy the others self-confidence.

In a marital relationship, when words are exchanged with tension or raised voices…an examination of the intent
without a rationalization of ones position might allow the insight that brings an apology.

Dying to a position or stance can win over ones spouse because backing away from destruction or domination reveals a heart that… even in a disagreement ….
loves more than it desires to win.

Gaining the whole world but losing ones soul is parallel to going balls out
to win an argument which in turn destroys the heart and spirit of the girl you pursued so passionately years ago.

Going to the wall is an absolute in the arena ….it can be right in the business world… but count the cost before going that distance in a relationship.

It might be too far.

I have a very close friend who got quite mad at me once for not doing what he thought I should. I chose not to allow that tension to affect my feelings toward him. I made no retaliatory comments.

About a week later,
he asked me if I “still loved him”.

I did.
I told him I did and said nothing about
the earlier tension.

In the middle of this competitive sports season when by all rights, Coaches should be displeased with
bad performance even in a big win…

And in this soon-to-be-Fall season when business emphasizes finishing strong ….

Be careful to count the cost for that same behavior ….relationally.

Don’t fuss about the house being a mess…. If your clothes are not in their proper place. Be careful not to make comments about your spouses appearance… if you are physically amiss.

Boys speak before they think…
Men should not.

Winning isn’t always winning.

Terry
September 2016

 

Heard TD Jakes speaking earlier, being interviewed about all of the activities and efforts he is engaged in. His Church, television, teaching, movies.

He made the comment…
” I want to see what’s in me”.

I want to see what’s in me…..
I buy into that.

Let’s buy into that.

Time can be managed.
Days can be scheduled and managed
Life, here, is only so long.

Let’s see what’s in us.

We hear Football Coaches this time of year talk and school players to…

“play 60 minutes”.

They say repeatedly…
“Play hard every play…games are decided by a few big plays…play hard every play”.

You have heard it…
“practice is where you learn”
“Practice is where you prepare to win”
“Practice hard…to win”

Spiritually,
practice is getting in the Word daily.

Doing so enables one to “make the plays” when the time comes.

Prepare yourself in some way…
everyday.

If you are 30…
if you are 60…
Let us make every day count for something.
My father died at 55 and he would tell you the time in his life that really counted for good were his last 15 years.

A very famous leader once said about
each day that was before him…
and this published comment is in my pocket everyday…

“God has given me this day
to use as I will.
I can waste it…or use it for good.
What I do today is important,
as I am exchanging a day of my life
for it.
When this day is over it will be
gone forever…
leaving something in its place I have traded for it.
I want it to be a gain, not a loss,
Good, not evil …
Success, not failure…
in order that I should not regret the
price I paid for it”.

Read that last phrase again….

“in order that I should not regret the price I paid for it.”

 

Let us maximize today.

Seize the day.

Let us use the Gifts given us…
fully.

The One Who placed the gifts within us did so for them to be fully exercised.

Don’t look back at some point and say “what might have been”.

 

See what’s in you.

 

Terry
September 2016

After this past birthday, I have recalled several events in my life. Having had many birthdays, I know that tends to occur.

Two particular events come to mind regarding my father. He was always influential in the lives of my brothers, I and my mother….but he became a man of great influence after the age of 37, when he
surrendered to a call on his life which had been present since he was about 20.
When I was twelve, I saw him step out of a row of people and walk a short distance to proclaim that he was changing his life…because of that Call.
I knew it was a big deal, yet I knew not what it took for him to do that until I became a Man myself.
About a year or so after seeing him take those steps to change his life…he had the opportunity to rescue me one morning.
In the seventh grade, the Vice Principal at
Rosemont Junior High School collared me and Gary Miller for throwing paper cups. We were to report to his office the next morning.
It felt as though I was sentenced to San Quentin.

I came home and thought I was disguising my fear and dread, but both my parents knew something was amiss. After dinner I made the statement that.

I was going to bed.

They knew.

The next morning, after squirming in the bed all night dreading the visit to Mr. Rhome”s office…
I went into breakfast with the same blank and mouth-agape stare I had the evening before.
I quickly returned to my room to bide the time before walking to school.
My father came into my room and shut the door, telling me I was going nowhere until I told him what was wrong.
After quickly thinking that not talking could get me out of going ….he looked at me, told me he loved me….and again asked what was wrong.

That’s when the 13 year old boy busted out crying and spilled out the big trouble I thought I was in.
He looked down at me, put his hand on my head, and told me it would all be okay.

He then prayed with me to The One Who had called him to change his life, and asked that He would give me Peace and Protect me.

As his hand rested on my head I looked up at my father, and he told me I was going to be okay.

I believed him.

At that moment, and I can recall it perfectly even now….every bit of anxious dread left me.

Immediately.

As I walked the few blocks to school I had no trace of the fear which gripped me walking home the day before.
The visit was over in two minutes as Mr. Rhome told Gary Miller and I he knew we were good young men and would not do that again.

He was right.

Did my father call and speak to him?

I will ever know.

But the words he spoke to me that morning have never left me….

and it was over 45 years ago.

It was the memory of those words that led me to call him and ask to see him in the Summer of 1980.

The plans I had made were falling apart.
I was 26 years old with plans to pursue and they had all met an absolute dead end.

I saw no way forward toward my goal.

I called my father.

I went and spent two days with him in the woods at a Camp he ran. As I drove there, I knew and remembered when he had put his hand on my head and told me I was going to be okay.

We walked, talked. I told him where I was.
I spoke of the apparent failure of what I had been working toward, and how every effort had reached its dead end.

He spoke nothing of failure. As good as my memory is I cannot tell you the exact words he spoke. But I can tell you what he told me.

He told me I was going to be okay.

He prayed with me and for me to The One Who had changed his life and granted me Peace and Release those years before.
After those two days, as I drove home….again…
I knew not how…but I knew I was going to be okay.

Two days later, the dead ends were still present…
but another avenue opened, and paved the way for the next four years of my life which were full of rewards, honors unexpected, and many moments of fulfillment and accomplishment.

Again, my father had gifted me with prayers of Peace, Release, Preperation and Encouragement.

 

He died during those next four years.

He died suddenly….

but he had gifted me immeasurably in my 30 years with him.

 

Today, over 30 years since he died….

his words and the measure of them are as real and vivid as those days he spoke them.
My brothers and I still have guys who hear our last name and speak of how great and positive an Influence he had on their young life.

I knew that first hand in 1965.

His Presence is gone, but the effect of his words and the influence of his changed life still live in me, my brothers, and in the many lives he touched.

The One I still call on is The One Who called my father to a changed and effective life ….
and I receive the same Peace and Release I did that day, long ago, when their hands rested on my head.

Terry

August 2016

 

What do you like to do?
What are your talents?
What is your strength….your greatest ability?

God put that in you….
that’s why you are good at it.

Are you maximizing that or those gifts?

Stirring something up keeps the ingredients mixed.

It creates flavor and fulfills the intent of the recipe.

 

Read that last phrase again….
“fulfills the intent of the recipe.”

 

Are you fulfilling the intent of the recipe Your Creator put together in you             to flavor the world as only you can do???

 

Stir up that gift.

Put it to use.

Continually.

It is the method to become the
“man in full” God intended for you to be.

No excuses for failing.

 

Make an effort to stir others up.

 

It’s not intruding in their lives….
it’s getting involved to help them fulfill their intended use.

It’s what the Coach who drove you hard, saw in you…and pushed you to be.

It’s what a teacher may have pushed you to fulfill….to your discomfort.

 

John Greenleaf Whittier wrote this…
“Of all the sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these….
“what might have been”.

It was used by a sportswriter to describe Mickey Mantle once. As great as the Yankee outfielder was, he was plagued by injuries his whole career and therefore did not accomplish what he might have.

Ernest Hemingway committed suicide at the age of 61.

John Kennedy died at 46.

Tiger Woods has seemingly had his career ended at 40.

I urge you to consistently be ….
and work aspirationally to become all you were and are created to be.

Determine with intentionality that
the sad phrase mentioned above will never be said of you.

Stir up your gifts.

 

Terry
August 2016

 

Have a twenty year relationship with a client. In 2006 he drove two hours to attend my mothers funeral. I had not informed him of her death.
That day as I walked out of the Sanctuary, he was sitting toward the back, he reached out, hugged me and told me he loved me.

In 2006-2008 I went on work trips with him to the Gulf Coast to clean up and rebuild in some areas after Katrina. He has been retired since 2002, but contributes to this world in multiple ways.

Yesterday, he was in my office signing papers after his girlfriend and wife of 61 years passed away in early July.

I asked him how he was.
He spoke for about a minute and the emotion, hurt, pain and suffering rose out of his heart and push tears out of his eyes.

As his head hung down I hugged him and told him I loved him.

There is no way I can understand completely how he feels, for I have not experienced the death of my spouse.

 

The One who gives us comfort allowed me to comfort one who had comforted me 10 years ago.

 

The author of the letters to Corinth told his readers that the sufferings he endured were to their benefit.

Yesterday, the pain and hurt I have felt in my life worked to the benefit of my longtime friend who stood suffering in my office.

I could have been shallow and told him it would get better. I could have given him a quick man-hug, quickly patted him twice on the back and walked away.

However, the comfort and words he gave to me a decade ago came back yesterday in an attempt to comfort and encourage him, and to pray with and for him. His hurt and my care for him in his pain drew tears from my eyes as I held him.

His pain and hurt are not gone today.
The suffering he is walking through will not end quickly.

 

Yet, I can be his friend today and for many tomorrows.

 

As he suffers the pain of loss,
I can walk with him,
not telling him anything ,
but simply walking through this, with him.

 

I have a friend whose teenaged son passed away in 2003.

 

Inexplicable pain.

Undefinable loss.

 

Most stayed away, but I went to him that night and simply sat in his living room with him and one other friend.

Three years later this same friend sat with my family and encouraged us that when we felt the loss and grief in our mothers passing….to concentrate on what she had gained by being eternally in The Presence of Christ.

Yesterday, as I could see the pain, hurt and suffering in the eyes of my friend … I shared with him that same encouragement.

If we walk according to the Creators’ Presence within us….the pain and hurt we live through will work to the benefit of many.

 

Terry
August 2016

 

There is a mission field in each of our lives.
Where is …or what is yours?

Is it in your thought life…
where no one sees, but you know.

Is it in your marriage….
where your wife feels it but does not express it??

Is it in your prayer life that gets moved to the front of the priority list only when a need becomes urgent?

 

There is a mission field in each of our lives…which needs an outside influence to come close and minister to us.

 

Some people go to other places and “missionary” to the visible needs in those locations…to feed people, to spread the Gospel…to heal diseases through prayer and medicine.

The fields we see across the country or around the world are visible and these places have advocates to reveal the need and they call out for missionaries to come.

 

There are missionaries who have mission fields in their own lives …. in need of ministry.

 

There are people who you will see today…..you may live with them, work with them, you may have given birth to them….. you will have contact today with souls who have a mission field to which you can “missionary”.

 

There maybe no advocate calling out to you. There may be no visible cry for help…..but you will see the mission field if you are “in their business”.

If you will be aware,
If you will ask questions,
If you care enough to be interested,
to turn aside from the direction you are headed and notice the eyes of the person in front of you or hear their voice.

 

You will notice the mission field in their life.

 

In your own life…
are you telling anyone about the mission field within you which needs attention??

You may need to be your own advocate and announce to someone the present need within you.

If those around you are attentive enough to notice and have hearts to hear… your Spiritual advocate will move them to get involved.

 

Have you felt our Spiritual advocate prompting you to a mission field in someone’s life ….someone you saw yesterday?

Someone you will have interaction with today?

 

If you receive that prompting…
it’s more vital to respond positively and get immediately involved in that
mission field than it is to get on a plane and go across a continent to minister there…..because it’s right in front of you and the Advocate has prompted you to  immediate action.

There is a mission field in each of us.

It’s a hole we need filled.
It’s help we need in some certain area.

Let it be known.

A mission field cannot be a missionary to itself.

 

Terry
July 2016

 

Today…
As we celebrate Freedom and all that is included within it…

May you as a servant of God…
choose to indenture yourself to Christ and His Work.

Paul spoke often of being free to do whatever.

Yet he wrote more often of being a bondservant to His Lord.

As we are free in our lives and in our country
may we choose to be indentured to
The One Who paid for our longer lasting freedom.

 

Terry
July 4, 2016

 

A devotional I read today puts it perfectly.

I see many of you already doing this.
And doing it well.
I admire you for doing it.

You are doing well at a position I have never been in.

Raising your children.

I have assisted in raising stepchildren…
but I was never their father.

I was not the major influence.

You are.

Never allow anything, outside your wife, to interfere with that.

Your children need YOU.

The devotional spoke of how teenage boys do not do well in counseling.

It’s because they needed and need their Fathers.

I have heard this before…. odds are great that if a father doesn’t discipline his son, the state will most likely have to at some point.

Love them.
Discipline them.
For if you truly love them…
you will discipline them…
it’s an element of love.

Give them quantity of time.
Quality time makes no sense to a child.
They need quantity. Large quantities.

 

Quality time is rationalization by a lazy parent.

 

Treasure and train those who call you “Daddy”.

Understand what a blessing it must be to hear that word.

It’s a 20 year task and a lifelong responsibility.

Love them.
Lead them.
Guide them.
Instruct then.
Discipline them.
Be consistent in front of them.
Know they hear, remember, learn and act out everything you do and say.

Great rewards follow great effort.

 

Terry

July 2016

 

 

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terrybethea.com

 

He seemed to be about 6’4 to all of us. He seemed to never miss a shot. He walked the halls of Rosemont Junior High School in 1965 and 1966 with every young basketball players eyes following every move he made.

He had been undefeated in his first year at another school, came to Rosemont and won every game in his first year. He was a ninth grade basketball coach…yet to us he was as big as Phil Jackson was with the Bulls and Lakers.

We hung on every word he spoke.
And when he said to my friend,
Ricky Ford, who was a “Troy Aikman” in the eighth grade, that Ricky had caused him to lose his first game ever as a Coach…we all took it as though Moses had thrown the tablets down and broke them because of us.

After lunch each day everyone would walk out onto an open area next to the track just outside the Wood/Metal Shop area until 5th period started.

Coach White would walk out sometimes and literally hold court among us.

One day he came up to our group and began talking with us.
He looked at me and said,
“Terry, give me your hand.”

I lifted up my right hand to him, he took it in his two hands and in front of Ricky Ford, Eric Johnson, Rudy Lambert, Sherman Lee and Don Warren…
he began lifting my hand by my middle finger with his hand, and releasing it.

He did this three times.

As my wrist would flop down he again lift up my hand and let my wrist drop my hand.

He looked around the group.

As he held my hand still in the air,
he looked at me and said…
” Guys ….this is a shooters wrist.
It’s an NBA shooters wrist.”

That was said to me in the Fall of 1967 and I remember it as clearly as these keys I am now touching. I can tell you the sun was bright that day and we all looked at him with awe as he walked back toward the Gym.

I became a very good shooter.

I did not achieve the level he mentioned… but at the moment he spoke those words and for years after I felt like I might.

 

The words we speak to those younger or dependent on us carry 50 years or more of weight and significance.

 

I am still a very good shooter.

I do not play any longer because I do not want to try and do something my mind had committed to memory… but my body might have let slip.

My mind recalls what Coach White said to me often.
I also remember what another Coach once said to me which dripped of doubt and skepticism….but not very often.

What Coach White said has remained
an encouragement …not merely about my ” shooters wrist”….
but combines with other encouragements that have created the confidence that my Creator has allowed me to have.

Speak light.

Whether Bill White actually believed I possessed an NBA “shooters wrist” or not, is irrelevant.
Those words, and others from him,  hit the ears of a group of eighth graders and lifted all of us to a better place.

Of that group, I know three played major college athletics and one preached successfully for many years.

Speak life.

You can cause an effect to be present in a young life and be manifested in a variety of ways for over 50 years. To the positive or to the negative.

It is your choice.

Coach Whites words still resonated within me.

I still see him looking at me in the eyes and speaking.

I still feel his hands lifting up mine.

 

 

Terry
July 2016

 

 

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