{"id":15913,"date":"2025-08-15T09:32:53","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T14:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/?p=15913"},"modified":"2025-08-20T09:36:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:36:02","slug":"picking-up-turtles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/15913\/picking-up-turtles\/","title":{"rendered":"Picking up turtles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning,<\/span><\/p>\n

A few mornings ago, I took a walk down Preacher Holmes road.\u00a0 It was a pleasant morning with the sun shining through the canopy of trees.\u00a0 As I walked along, I spotted a box turtle on the side of the road with its head pointed toward the opposite side of the road.\u00a0 I knew that there was a very slim chance it would make it across the road before getting crushed by an oncoming vehicle. Feeling a bit good-natured, I decided to help the turtle cross to the other side, making sure to set it down pointing in the same direction as when I found it.\u00a0 Then I continued my walk.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had not gone but a short distance when I spotted another turtle attempting the same dangerous feat.\u00a0 So like the first one, I picked this one up and carried it to the other side of the road.<\/span><\/p>\n

Believe it or not, this happened two more times on the same stretch of road.\u00a0 I have helped other turtles in the past but never four within a short period of time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Later, I thought about what I had experienced and could not help to think about my own life.\u00a0 It is hard telling how many times Jesus has picked me up from some dangerous road I was attempting to cross, saving me from my own ignorance and self will.\u00a0 In my youth, for example, there were jobs that I thought I wanted that did not work out.\u00a0 There were relationships with friends and others that could have led to serious problems.\u00a0 I could go on and on but the point is that Jesus was always there to rescue me. I made sure to point the turtles in the same direction they were traveling but Jesus pointed me in the right direction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Turtles cannot conceive the risk of crossing a busy road, so they are determined to go on. Thankfully, Jesus has given us his spirit to guide us away from taking the wrong road and pursuing our fleshly desires.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By the way, I have a bit of a fondness toward box turtles.\u00a0 When I was a young boy, I found a box turtle that only had three legs.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what happened to its missing leg, nor do I remember what I named it.\u00a0 (I can only imagine.) I kept the turtle for a pet and even entered it in a pet contest at a 4-H fair and won a couple ribbons.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tom<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning, A few mornings ago, I took a walk down Preacher Holmes road.\u00a0 It was a pleasant morning with the sun shining through the canopy of trees.\u00a0 As I walked along, I spotted a box turtle on the side of the road with its head pointed toward the opposite side of the road.\u00a0 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15914,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15913\/revisions\/15914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}