By Tommy Rush
There’s a lot of things that I’m thankful for but my family is at the top of the list. I received an email from my son this week that has my Thanksgiving holiday off to a great start! Craig writes a weekly update for the church he serves as a pastor and this week’s update was about my Dad. I hope you don’t mind me sharing it with you today. I’m extremely grateful for a Dad who cherished his grandchildren and children who deeply loved their grandfather.
Pastor Craig’s Weekly Update Tab Church, Norfolk VA
Hey Tab Family,
Earlier this week, I had an experience that brought back a flood of memories. I walked into our Ocean View Truist Bank with my 3 kids to meet the branch manager and open savings accounts. There’s probably an app for that, but we weren’t going that direction. Sometimes old school is better. Andy, Chris, and Angela, all members of the Truist team, treated my kids like millionaires even though we were lacking a handful of zeros! They walked them through the hardcopy ledger and gave them their own lesson on tracking their hard-earned cash. It was a new memory of an old memory I’ll enjoy for a long time.
I remember like yesterday, my grandfather and I pulling up into the parking lot of Regions Bank in Selma, Alabama. I couldn’t have been more than 12. We’d put in a full day selling Ziegler meat to all the surrounding Winn Dixie’s and Piggly Wiggles and Grandaddy thought it was time for me to open a bank account. He instructed me to walk in, look the manager in the eye, shake his hand, and tell him my name. One never knows when you might need to borrow some money and relationship is where it all begins. That was the gist of my grandfather’s pep talk. I’ll never forget that experience I shared with my grandfather, and it made me happy to pass it along to my kids. Another generation of Rushes looking people in the eye, shaking hands, and sharing their names. Relationships matter even at the local bank.
I learned a lot from my grandfather that I’ll forever be thankful. He taught me the art of telling a good story. He mastered this art even though he never mastered his fear of public speaking. I pray his legacy of telling a good story lives through me. He also taught me the lesson of contentment. Because of his relationship with Christ, my grandfather had the most settled of souls. He understood what it meant to make it our aim to live a quiet life. My grandfather was a brilliant man, but my life has been blessed through his love for simplicity.
