I Can't Believe It's Been 40 Years!

I was asked recently why I seldom write any of my own stories so I decided to share one. This week's blog post marks a milestone in my blogging since this blog post will complete one full year of Faith, Family, and Farm. I appreciate the kind remarks many of you have made about the "stories." It is my goal that all of our lives will be enriched by them.

The Most Important Thing I Learned at Oklahoma State University

                Four decades, forty years – That is the number of years since I began transitioning to college life. The year was 1974. In August of that year, I moved into a dorm room in West Bennett Resident Hall and launched into my coursework at Oklahoma State University.
                In truth, I had one reason for attending the university. I really wanted a college degree. My grandfather, Calvin Callcayah Smith, who had to quit school at fourth grade to help with family work, consistently encouraged me to “attend a teacher’s college and become a teacher.”
                Initially, I despised what I called “orderly planted trees” and “too many sidewalks” in a poem I wrote early in my first year. There were people everywhere and not many places to escape from them except for a few nooks in the library. I had only lived in the wide-open spaces of the Big Bend community until I began college. It was quite a change!
                Those four years at OSU did afford glorious cultural opportunities to attend symphony performances, operas, concerts, and classical plays to enumerate just a few events. Other memorable opportunities to make music with creative, talented people honed my own playing and singing. Friends made during that time in my life remain dear to me.
                Hillcrest Baptist Church played an important role in those years, especially each Wednesday evening. I attended a Bible study made up of a mixed age group with only a handful of university students. Interaction with older people gave a different perspective than the 18 to 22-year-old friends I encountered daily. It seemed like a quiet, momentary respite from the hectic, demanding college life.
                I did earn the degree, but one of the most important changes in my life during that tenure at Oklahoma State University involved my own personal quiet time. All my growing up years, my family read the Bible and prayed together each evening. Anyone who knows my family knows that my parents always observed the Lord’s Day by faithfully serving in our church. However, doubts concerning my salvation consumed me frequently, even though I could clearly recall the July day in 1964, when I had knelt with my grandmother and mother at our couch, prayed for Jesus to forgive my sins, and committed my life to Him. Repeatedly, Mother counseled me to read the book of I John on my own. Over and over again, I started but never finished the small book of five chapters. I was reading classical books with hundreds of pages voraciously but for some unknown reason could not even read once through the tiny book of First John. Once I arrived at OSU, I had to develop a time to read my Bible daily because I knew that was the only way I could successfully navigate the collegiate lifestyle. My family wasn’t there to bolster me up.   
                Some ask why I was so slow to develop my daily personal walk with the Lord. A myriad of reasons led to it. I was immature because I was relying on the faith and spiritual discipline of my parents and grandparents. My failure to realize that God desired a personal time with me to teach me, communicate His will, and relate to me caused me to make this a low priority. I rationalized that I was daily reading the Bible. Wasn’t reading with my family better than nothing? After all, I never rebelled at our family reading and prayer.  I had been content in an attitude of spiritual laziness to continue in the rut of dependency on my family’s commitment to God’s Word instead of forging daily a path to the Lord myself. The stress, the demands, the temptations, and the need for guidance forced me to open the copy of the Living Bible that I had been given and begin reading through the Bible for the first time.
                 Therefore, in this forty-year retrospective, the cultivation of the daily habit of getting into God’s Word was one of the most important accomplishments from my time as an on-campus OSU Cowpoke. The spiritual habit of daily Bible reading continues to sustain me through the stresses and problems. It gives me direction and encourages me to seek God’s strength for the day and walk in it.
              Of course, I am thankful to have earned the degree. Grandpa was quite proud of my accomplishment, and I still love to sport the Brightest Orange. Go Cowboys!

Photo of  me from college days

Interesting Facts from My College Days
$14/credit hour
$0.51 for burger and small drink at Hardee’s – I had a 20-meal plan so only had to provide my Sunday night meal outside of the dorm cafeteria
Borrowed $4,000  - Glenn Hadlock authorized yearly a loan for $1,000 for me.– I budgeted carefully. Recently, Glenn said he knew I needed more. Each year he would ask me if that was enough. I had a grant to pay for my tuition as long as I keep a fairly high GPA.
Had no car - Earned my degree without a car; Thanks to people like Gene Barrett, Price Brown, Mike Hightower, Debbie Hightower Ballinger, Robin Myers, and Banetha Buchanan who all provided a ride home from Stillwater for me.