FAMILY

Everytime I turned around as a little girl one of my parents was telling me that they loved me! Daddy would say something like "Olive you", or "Isle of View" along with a picture of an island with sea gulls flying above.
(He was Heathcliffe and I was Gertrude!)
Mama was more of the disciplinarian in our family, but all in all, love seemed to be the thread that held all of us together. We were a family that did things together and went places together with each other, and with other families too. It wasn't unusual to find us on the shore of Lake Gertrude with the Reid; Travers; Simpson; Swartsel, and Eichelberger families on any given weekend, and then on Sunday afternoon, we would go boating with the Bakers on Lake Dora, and have sundaes at their house afterwards. Family was big with the Ray household, and love personified it! Daddy and Mama taught all of us, at an early age, that race; age, or background didn't matter to us. It was your character that God instilled in you that mattered. Infact, Daddy had a young black man, named Ned, who worked for him, whom I dearly adored, and when it was time for him to go off to college, he couldn't afford it, so Daddy put him through college at University of Florida. Whenever I drive home, I stop off and see Ned and his wife, as he is a retired shop teacher in Palatka, and when Daddy died, he was right there at the funeral, with a hug for me!
Mama and Daddy wanted the Ray kids to always show respect and love for the elderly and others, and felt very much as if this was what God intended for His children to also do, when He told us to love Your neighbor as yourself. Love came first in the Ray household, and I'm reminded, that if you tell and show your children this, they, in turn will tell and show others this also!
Isn't God good to give us these markers?
And if you didn't have these markers as a child, God is still good, and can be your Father and love you too!
Becky