Lessons From A Father: Lesson 4

5 Lessons from a Father

By Hope A. Bevilhymer

WORD

LESSON NUMBER 4: True Faith in Humanity

 

I am saving the best ones for the last.  This is by far a lesson I have kept with me as long as I could remember.  My Father taught me that your word is your bond... Whatever you say you are going to do... You do it.

He worked graveyards when I was little so bonding time was limited to the afternoons when he was getting ready for work.  I always remember he would say to us sometimes would you want to go rollerskating in the morning. Knowing he would just be coming off a graveyard shift.  We would say yes that would be fun.  Sure enough the next morning he was ready to go rollerskating with us.  He would do this often with all sorts of activities.  As I started to get older is when I noticed whenever he said he would do something he would do it.  I thanked him one day for assisting me with a friends vehicle that had broken down.  I thanked him because no matter the situation if he said he would be there, he would.  I never had to question if he was going to not show up. He told me in a very firm voice "Hope, if you say your going to do something...Then you do it. You do not back out,You give it your all in everything you do.  Your word is worth more then you will ever know." He then went on to explain to me that there will be people in the world who will say they will do something... and they don't. He went on stating they can talk all they want about what their going to do, but its those who do it that will have the most reward.

As the years passed I noticed myself applying this lesson to all of my life.  This included relationships, my work ethics and other aspects. When you keep to your word you build a characteristic within you that is one that people value.  Recently this subject come up with my spouse and I.  Every year for my spouses birthday we go camping.  I had scheduled the camping trip in March and we were not going to go until the first week of June.  So planning for the camping trip was in motion.  At the end of April I received an invitation to play a show with my band The Feros Project at a major festival.  The date of the performance was the first week of June.  Our band was going to be paid a good amount of money to play and the exposure was going to be great.  I had a problem though... I had already committed to go camping with my spouse.  I sat down to talk with my spouse and they said "Well do what you want, but we had made a previous commitment." I knew at that moment what I needed to do. I had made a commitment to go camping and I needed to keep to my word.  

Keeping to your word is very simple and this is me reaching out to you.  I keep my faith in humanity that everyone applies this lesson to their lives. If you say you are going to do something...Then do it.  You will see a transformation in your life.  Your decisions to do something will be easier.  Keep to your commitments that you have for yourself and for others. I will keep to my word and continue to do the weekly blogs!! Stay tuned for the last lesson of the 5 part series.

Lessons From A Father: Lesson 3

5 Lessons from a Father

By Hope A. Bevilhymer

LESSON NUMBER 3: Don't be so DUMB!

  Sorry bloggers it has been sometime since I have posted here.

 If you have meet any of us Bevilhymers you will automatically see we are bigger in stature.  People joke all the time that I have a big German head.  Which is true most of the baseball hats will not fit me.  With us being bigger in stature we are able to use our physical strength to our advantage.  My Father was also a larger man.  The thing about my Father though is he was solid and strong.  You need something moved have one of us or a couple of us come move it for you it will be no problem.
  
Recently I was working on my spouses car with my brother.  There was a bolt that just would not budge. I tried different wrenches, sockets and angles to see how I could get this bolt off.  I thought that if I used sheer force and muscle this bolt would loosen.  No instead I nicely started to strip the bolt and cut my fingers open trying to pry it with all my might.  My brother stopped me and he said did you not learn anything from our Father.  I responded in saying, "What do you mean?"  My brother then reminded me of the saying "Don't work harder, work smarter."  My brother then grabbed a breaker bar and the bolt just came off with ease.  My brother then reminded me that I did not need to use strength but use my smarts.

   My Father was constantly reminding me to work smarter.  I would try to lift heavy things and he would stop me and say step out of the box and see if this is the only way you can move this item.  I would then think of different alternates to pick up the item.  Most the time I would find something that would carry the weight of the item so I would not need to do all the heavy lifting.  Over time of him reminding me to use as he called it "The thing between my ears" and figure out the smartest way to tackle anything. I did not just use this lesson in just manual or physical ways.  I was also able to apply it in other aspects of my life. With relationships, employment and other daily activities.  I often forget too use this lesson in life sometimes.  This can get me into trouble because I will just dive in and go for it before actually taking the time to use my brain and take care of it the easy way.  If we take the time to just work smarter not harder then things might just go a little smoother. Why make a task more difficult then it needs to be. Use your brain!