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 Monday's Guideposts - STANDARDS
#15386742
04/28/25 11:36 AM
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Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 3,800
crapyetr
OP
TFF Team Angler
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OP
TFF Team Angler
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 3,800 |
“If you don't set a baseline standard for what you'll accept in life, you'll find it's easy to slip into behaviours and attitudes or a quality of life that's far below what you deserve.” ~ Anthony Robbins
When I was a kid growing up in the hills of Tennessee, we farmed 200 acres with mules, and the most headstrong, stubborn, cantankerous one of them all was old Tobe. On Sundays, the animals’ day of rest was well as ours, Tobe had to stay in the barn while the other mules were turned out to pasture, or else he’d jump the fence and run off.
When anyone asked Dad why he put up with him, his answer was always the same. “Behind the plow,” he’d say, “Tobe comes up to standards.”
That was Dad’s philosophy in a nutshell. He wasn't bothered by the surface differences and idiosyncrasies in people or mules. Standards, that’s what he cared about.
Dad died when I was 11, and we had to sell the farm, staying on as sharecroppers. Those were hard years, but Mother’s smile and her indomitable faith never wavered. She gave me my first music lesson, teaching me how to pick out Sweet Bunch of Daisies on a borrowed guitar. Before long I was performing at most every picnic or church supper around. Our hill-country neighbors liked my songs so well I decided I would make a career of singing.
At 17 I left home for the radio station in Jackson, 18 miles away and discovered how awful I really was. I didn’t come up to even minimum musical standards, but I made up my mind I would practice until I did.
In order to eat, I took a job driving a hearse for a funeral home. I was given a room and 25 cents a run, and the rest of the time I could practice my music. Occasionally I’d make a dollar playing at a square dance.
After Jackson came Memphis, St. Louis, Louisville; but the type of taverns and clubs and dives which booked me were wrong for my kind of singing. The clientele was usually loud and bawdy, interested in off-color lyrics, while I specialized in country ballads. I’ll never forget the night a drunk dumped a stein of beer into my new guitar because I wouldn’t play his favorite barroom song.
You see, I couldn’t play that kind of music because of those standards. Finally when I was good enough some of the right folks took notice and I began playing for audiences who liked what I had to give
By now, though, my wife, Sally, and I had two kids and I worried about being away from home so much. I knew what a family is without a dad, and so when Jo-Ann and Dick reached their early teens, I quit the circuit to spend more time with them and entered the most frustrating few years of my life. We couldn’t seem to see eye to eye on anything—clothing, hair, school work, hours, duties around the house. The more I cracked down, the more mulish they became.
That’s when I got thinking about old Tobe. He was an aggravating critter all right, headstrong and self-willed, ill-disposed to restraint, but out in the field, where it mattered, Tobe came up to standards.
So I stopped preaching and started doing some listening and made a discovery about my kids and a lot of others today. Externally their lifestyle may be different from my generation’s, but where standards are concerned for things like honesty, perseverance, courage to stand up for what they believe is right they often do better at reaching them than some of us.
Not long ago I saw an example of this. My son Dick told me he was going to apply for a job in the news department of a TV station. “That’s great, Dick,” I said. “I know the general manager. I’ll go down and put in a good word.”
He frowned. “I’d rather go alone,” he said. “If I’m not good enough yet to do the job, I shouldn’t get it.”
At first I was a little hurt. Then, I realized what he was saying. He wanted to be up to standards. I felt as proud of him that minute as when he came home shouting, “Dad, I got the job!” ~ Eddie Arnold
(Eddie Arnold sold more than 85 million records, and is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame)
MERCY - not receiving what you deserve
GRACE - receiving what you don't deserve
Preach the gospel at all times; USE WORDS IF NECESSARY
"It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness."
I'd rather walk with God with no questions answered than to walk thru life without Him and know the answers
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Re: Monday's Guideposts - STANDARDS
[Re: crapyetr]
#15386762
04/28/25 11:54 AM
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Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 6,653
GTrigg
TFF Celebrity
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TFF Celebrity
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 6,653 |
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Re: Monday's Guideposts - STANDARDS
[Re: crapyetr]
#15386768
04/28/25 12:07 PM
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Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 6,965
Wool E. Booger
TFF Celebrity
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TFF Celebrity
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 6,965 |
Great story crapyetr…keep em coming 
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Re: Monday's Guideposts - STANDARDS
[Re: crapyetr]
#15386785
04/28/25 12:27 PM
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 18,741
921 Phoenix
TFF Guru
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TFF Guru
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 18,741 |
Amazing what faith can do
God is good
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Re: Monday's Guideposts - STANDARDS
[Re: crapyetr]
#15386814
04/28/25 12:49 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 51,940
RATZ
Activity Coordinator
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Activity Coordinator
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 51,940 |
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