PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE: DESTINY

Hello friends. If you are reading this...it is because of a man named Lonnie Louis Boyd...who met Elizabeth Graves Webb and conceived Rodney Lewis Boyd. I am approaching 57 years old...and I have been reflecting on where I came from...where I've been...and where I'm going. The older you get...the awareness of your mortality begins to reach towards you. Thank God...that we have a promise and a hope of going beyond the cradle and the grave.

The Boyd household has roots in Scotland...crossing over to America...and settling in a little hamlet called Brewston Tennessee. Brewston is a blip on the road map on the way to Memphis Tennessee. I never knew my grandfather on my dad's side...but I have been told that he was a hard man. He was a card carrying, horse riding, hood wearing member of the Ku Klux Klan. In the first collage you see a picture of a young boy named Lonnie...who had no idea what life held for him.

Dad grew up...met Elizabeth (Mom)...went to war...came back...got married... started laundry with mom's sister's (Mary Dean) husband (Larkin/Mooney)... got a job at the V.A. Hospital...retired from their after 35 years...and became a grandfather in 1989.

Everybody has got a story to tell. In the Ruminator Sunday School Class...we were talking about how when we are born...our lives are shaped by our environment and our experience...for the better or worse. The good, the bad, and the ugly...forms who we are...by how we relate to those times. When we become Christians we become NEW CREATIONS in CHRIST...the OLD THINGS pass away...NEW THINGS come. (II Corinthians 5:17)...HOWEVER...our souls...our minds (what we think ), our volition/wills (what we freely choose) and our emotions (the barometer of the soul)...can still be affected by the imprint of the our environment/experiences. Lonnie Boyd had a lot of imprint in his life. What we experience...is passed down to the next generation...and to the next generation...the good, the bad, and the ugly...BUT...we do not have to settle for the past affecting our now that will determine our future.

"For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope."
(Jeremiah 29:11) This was written to a people who were in captivity because of their sins...but even in captivity...there was a hope. So it is with us...who may be captive by their roots, their past, their generational curse...BUT the CURSE can be stopped in it's track.


My Dad and I had a tenuous relationship. We were usually conflict by various things. Some of our tension came from the teenager/adult conflicts. My memories are mixed.

I have great memories of Dad grilling out, fishing, dancing with Mom on a Friday night to the sounds of Glenn Miller. Dad was very influential in my eclectic musical tastes as he let me buy Elvis' Jailhouse Rock when I was 6 years old and let me play his albums and singles like Brooke Benton and Dianah Washington's A ROCKIN' GOOD WAY and BABY, YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES, and Glenn Miller, Woody Herman, Pete Fountain, The Riverboat Five, Ray Charles. He hated country music...so it took years and my son Phillip to break that barrier where I even like country music.

Bad memories are also imprinted...as alcohol shaped and formed his life. I have vivid memories of waking up in the middle of the night with my Mom screaming into the phone for Dad to come home from the bars...and when he got home the fight would continue. I remember the conflicts at home culminating to the point of my mom telling me to go to the gas station down the road...to gets a can of gas so she could burn down the house with us in it and end it all.

I have good memories of them starting out going to church with me...but it ended up with just me...which continue to when I was 16 years old. I finally quit going...and started walking down the path that Dad started for me by drinking and ingesting other chemicals...just to escape the world. When I accepted Jesus as my Saviour...my destiny had a dynamic shift for the better.

Growing up...I did not realize what shaped Dad. I only knew the effect of what effected him was effecting me.

Dad joined the Army during World War II...and served his country. For a Brewston boy...this was probably a step up from the mundane. Dad went to New York...flew to London (where he won a Jitterbug contest with his dancing feet)...and then off into the War in places like Africa and Italy). Dad did not talk much about the war and his experiences. All I really knew was that as a result of his experience in the Army...he would not take us to the movies because he hated to stand in line. I also knew that he got a pair of specially made shoes because he got his toes blown off. He walked with a limp and could run and play with me. I found out later...that he got some of his toes blown of in a cave was he stepped on a land mine. He was rewarded with a Purple Heart.

One of the pivotal events...that had the cause and effect of me sitting at this computer...ruminating on my Dad...is seen in the picture of the NEW TESTAMENT. Every service man was given a New Testament when they were sent out war. If you look at the lower corner you will see the place where a bullet was stopped when it struck my Dad. He carried the Bible in his shirt pocket. What could have meant the end of the Boyd linage...was diverted...so Dad could come home...get married...have me...so I could meet Brenda...get married...and have Phillip. Some call it luck...some call it Kismet...some call it karma...I call it destiny. If you have ever been encouraged by anything I have ever said or wrote...it could have ended by a bullet or a land mine. As a teenager...I never realized what Dad went through...as a child or as an adult.

In his later years...there was a gradual change taking place. He quit drinking... he quit smoking...and PHILLIP STEPHEN BOYD came into his life. I came to find out...through talking with Dad...that he was proud of me...and actually loved me.

Dad and Mom poured out their love...to Phillip. According to Dad...Phillip hung the moon. After Mom passed away...Dad became Phillip's chief baby sitter.

In 1993...Dad passed away with pancreatic cancer. He was at home...Hospice was on the seen...and we were at bedside. In the end...Dad was struggling to stay here on earth...breathing heavily...gasping for oxygen. I was able to hold his hand...and bend down to his left ear...and tell him that it was O.K. to let go of this life and ease on into heaven...where Mom was waiting. A strange peace came in the room...his breathing eased...and he closed his eyes...took his final breath... and died.

Even as I write this...tears do well up. Why? Because I love my Dad...and God was able to redeem the bad and the ugly in our relationship...and make it good.
I have the assurance that my Dad had accepted Jesus. He lived out his last years with my son...by pouring out what he wished he could have done with me...but because of past experiences and his environment...could not.


In the Ruminator Sunday School Class...we have seen that...our MINDSET...can be changed as we RENEW OUR MINDS with the Word of God. As we take the good, the bad, and the ugly...and begin to let our minds dwell on the Word...we begin to think differently...and begin to talk differently...and begin to act differently.

UNRESTRAINED THOUGHTS (what we think)...PRODUCES UNRESTRAINED WORDS (what we say)...resulting in UNRESTRAINED ACTIONS (what we do). We are not bound by thoughts, words and actions. We are not bound by the past and the present...or even what appears to be our inevitable future. Jesus Christ...the Living Word of God...and change us from the inside out...and fulfill his destiny and purpose for us.

"For I know the PLANS that I have for you declares the Lord...plans for welfare and not for calamity...to GIVE YOU A FUTURE AND A HOPE." Jeremiah 29:11

Love and Hopeful Kisses
Rodney "Son of Lonnie" Boyd