Like Popeye, we may feel, "That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more!"   Too bad we can't take a can of spinach to bolster our inner strength, but lettuce move on.  

Drey and Faye can't have children, so they adopt a child ...at birth.  They name him Jay.

They resolve never to tell him that he was adopted, though throughout life there are occasions when questions are asked.  Nonetheless, they both hope those occasions can be minimized.

Faye is hispanic, dark-complexioned, and just over four feet tall.  Drey has green eyes, and is tall and slender ...sort of reminds you of a cat that wandered into your back yard.  Jay doesn't seem to match any of their characteristics ...he is blond and blue-eyed.

Jay learns to talk before his first birthday.  The way he talks is rather cute, as are most children that age.  But Jay doesn't outgrow it.  At the age of four ...and five, it isn't so cute.  To be honest, it becomes rather disturbing.

It becomes particularly bothersome for Drey.  He doesn't want to admit it, but it really agitates him each time Jay speaks ...so much so, that he develops a game where he doesn't have to listen to Jay speak.  He and Jay both carry around with them, a pad of paper and a pencil.  If either of them wants to tell the other something, they write it down.  Then they take off one of their socks, put the note inside the sock, and toss it to the other. Jay learns to like this particular game of catch ...and he also learns to be a good speller.

For his sixth birthday, Jay's mom wants to get him a dog ...but his dad wants to get him a fishing pole.

They decide to get him both.  Dad picks out the fishing pole, and mom picks out a poodle.  Jay would have preferred a Collie, Golden Retriever ...or some other rather large dog, but he isn't about to tell mom of his disappointment.

Mom doesn't notice anyway, as she spends much time with the dog ...getting it professionally trimmed, and entered into dog shows, while Jay and Dad go fishing.

Jay isn't that thrilled with fishing either, but he has accumulated a rather large rock collection from the shore of the lake where they go fishing.

This year is also Jay's first year attending school.  Jay could have entered school last year, but he was held back, in hopes that his speech would improve.  But it hadn't.

On day one, Jay is teased about his lisp.  He tries to act like it doesn't bother him ...but the others can tell that it does, and they tease him more.  Finally, that first day ends.  He looks forward to going fishing with Dad ...and Dad is waiting for him with their poles and tackle box.  

Dad asks how his first day went, and he says, "Okay."   

Dad walks with a pole and tackle box in one arm, and the other arm across his son's shoulder.  All Jay's troubles seem to melt away.

Each day it is difficult to endure all the teasing, but he manages ...that is, until Dad is switched to the afternoon shift at work.

Dad is no longer there when Jay gets back from school ...well, he is there, just asleep.  When Dad gets home from work, Jay is asleep, and Dad is asleep when Jay leaves for school. 

Jay can no longer go fishing with Dad after school, or play catch passing notes.

Jay just sits around, and tries to play with his rock collection, but he seems to have lost interest.  He goes to the frig for a snack, one Mom has pre-made for him.  She is at another dog show with Marie ...his poodle.

Faye's lack of involvement with anyone other than with the poodle, adds to the stress of Dad's job and his new long hours.  The two suffer spousal deficiencies, becoming virtual strangers to one another.  And any desperate attempt to express feelings doesn't help much.  Drey tries to mention that she is spending too much time with that poodle, and that doesn't go over too well either.  They both just drift further apart.

Jay's second year at school is no better than the first, but what bothers him most is the deep trenches of bitterness being dug between his parents.  They both remain entrenched within hopeless routines, and continue to hurl verbal grenades at one another from behind their bunkers.

Jay has a particularly bad day at school ...he wins his class spelling bee.  You'd think that would be a good thing, but each time he spelled a word correctly, the entire class would laugh.  And since he won the spelling bee, he ended up spelling the most words ...which meant an intolerable amount of laughter.

When Jay gets home from school, Mom is away and Dad is asleep as usual.  Jay wants to get away too ...yet what he really wants is to go to the lake with Dad, but unable to do that, he just sits there with his ocean of problems.  He can do nothing but sit in the house and cry for several hours.

Jay is so smothered with emotions, he finds no reason for living. He decides to bury his emotions ...by taking his favored rock collection to the back yard.  He digs a hole, and is about to throw his treasured rocks in the hole ...when his eyes light upon something flashing in the sunlight. 

It is the most beautiful piece of granite he had ever seen, mixed with feldspar and mica.  For that brief moment he forgets his despondency ...and some of the excitement he and Dad had once shared, revisits his memory.  He glances at the house, and sees a shadow of Dad walking from the bathroom to the bedroom. He hurries inside.  He must show Dad this new find.  He hops inside, as he takes off one sock.  He grabs a note pad, and quickly scrawls out a note ...tucks it in the sock, and tosses it beside Dad on the bed.  

Dad reads the note, then reaches for the pad on the nightstand, quickly scrawling his own note: "I'll see your rock collection tomorrow!"   Dad reaches for a sock on the floor beside his bed, tucks the note in the sock, and tosses it to Jay.

Jay fumbles the toss, and it hits him in the head.  An edge of the note was sticking out, and pokes his eye.  He drops his new sparkling rock, quickly covering his watering eye.  Jay doesn't realize that Mom had just got home.  She had seen Drey toss the sock, heard the rock drop to the floor with the sock, and saw her son covering his eye.  With all the accumulated tension between herself and Drey, she loses her cool.   She doesn't confront her sleeping husband.  

She calls the police.

Drey is removed from the home immediately, months later a divorce is finalized, and that leaves Jay feeling he has nothing to look forward to.   Mom tries to manufacture hope, but she doesn't know where to turn to meet Jay's needs.  She begins to eat whenever she feels down ...which is often, and quickly she puts on substantial weight.

One of the kids in the neighborhood notices that Jay's dad isn't around anymore ...and word gets around at school, "So, your dad left because he can't stand you either!"

Faye attends a teacher's meeting.  She is not aware of Jay's struggles at school, until she sees how poorly he is doing in Spelling.  His grade is so low, he won't even qualify for this year's Spelling Bee.  

The teacher asks if there has been any changes at home, but Faye responds, "Nothing that I can image would affect his grades like this."    

The teacher asks Faye if she can come back tomorrow, fifteen minutes before dismissal time. Faye doesn't know the teacher's angle, but she agrees to this.

The following day, Faye paces outside in the hallway, waiting for the class to be dismissed ...so she can talk to the teacher.  What she witnesses, infuriates her.  She hears the other children making fun of Jay, with their relentless cruelty.

She witnesses one boy intentionally bump into Jay, his books sprawling all over the floor.  Instinctively, she grabs the boy by the arm, "Now you help pick up those books!"

The boy pulls back, "Get your hands off me, fatso!"

From that point on, the school gives Jay permission to be dismissed ten minutes early from the last class ...and he is picked up by his mom.

This does not help.  Jay is teased even more, and ten minutes before school is out, they chant with a whisper, "Mama's boy, mama's boy ...oh, what a joy to be a mama's boy!"

Giving some credit to the teacher, she does try to confront some of the teasing, but the other students begin to use sign language to make fun of Jay.  It becomes impossible to prove, or prevent it from happening.

It is Halloween, and Faye buys a bunch of candy.  She eats a good portion herself, but before she gets sick, she tells Jay he can turn the porch light on, and pass out candy.  Faye knows everyone loves to get candy, and they will probably all be in a happy mood.

Everything goes well, and Jay even seems to be enjoying it ...until a few of his classmates decide to pull a practical joke on him.  One of the older boys climbs up the tree in front of Jay's house, while another one hands him up a box.  A little boy is sent up to the door.   The little boy gets his candy, then asks, "Can you please help me get my cat out of the tree?"

The older boy begins to make cat noises.  Jay walks out to the tree with the little boy, then when he looks up, the older boy dumps a bag of soot on his head.

The older boys laugh ...and laugh.  Meanwhile, some other young children walk up to the door to get candy.  Jay walks around the tree, to return to the porch ...and the young children see him, give out a scream, and run away.

The older boys come near, and almost in admiration, say, "You really scared them ...that was funny!"

The next morning, Jay gets some black shoe polish and rubs it all through his blond hair.  He thickens his eyebrows with it, and even lightly encircles his eyes with a light shade of it.  He looks at himself in the mirror, and smiles.  

At school, no one makes fun of Jay.  He looks rather terrifying.  It's not so much that he is scary looking, but that they are a bit scared by how he might react.  This is a new Jay, and they don't know quite what to expect.   The teacher notices it, and she doesn't quite approve, but she also notices that no one is laughing at Jay.  There is much whispering going on, but no one is laughing at him.  She decides to not mention anything about the way he looks.

Jay is surprised to find a comic book that has a character that looks sort of like the new way he looks.  Jay's mom allows him to visit the comic book store each week, happy to see Jay interested in something ...and also seeing Jay a bit happier.

Jay reads that others have also found much interest in the comics, and there are actual events where they dress up in elaborate attire and costumes.  His mom lets him attend one of these events, and he meets some boys who want to be his friends.

Faye sees no harm in this, and actually encourages the friendship ...seeing it makes Jay happy.  

Faye doesn't know that animal sacrifice is one of their practices ...until it's too late.  Jay goes to the back yard one evening, and sacrifices his poodle.   Faye is horrified, and she becomes scared of what else Jay may do.  As much as she loved Marie, it was Jay's poodle ...in fear, she tries to rationalize this, but she just can't.  It is wrong!!  If she ignores this, what else could potentially happen?  She has to put a stop to this ...now!!

We may ask, what is wrong with that!  Every time we eat chicken, or a hamburger ...that chicken or beef cow was killed.  So we are eating animals all the time ...animals that were killed.  So, how is it more horrific to kill a dog?  Other countries eat dog ...so why don't we all just view this as acceptable.  I know people have gone to prison for similar cruel acts, but why can't we just change the laws, and make it acceptable?

And while we are at it, why don't we just change how we look at the Bible too?   This is often being done ...but I, Stephen Meiner, will not join the ranks of those who are doing this!  I will stand for what is right, for what God says.  God is not fragile, and He doesn't need me ...but I need Him.  And to glorify God, is to stand, to represent, to acknowledge what He has said, and who He is.

When I was old enough to know better, my friend Pierre and I found our evening delight watching a rather intense thunderstorm.  The next day, we noticed that a popular tourist spot had burned down, inclusive of its souvenir shop.  We walked about, then one of us tripped on something.  We discovered that there were many treasures just beneath the surface of the now cool embers.  We got excited, like a couple of little kids discovering buried treasure.  Soon we accumulated an entire bag of these treasures.

The next day, my mom found one of those treasures, and asked where it came from.  I explained.  Her response was, "You stole that!"  I tried to help her understand, "No, I didn't ..."   But she instead helped me understand.  Pierre and I brought the stuff back.  It was not our treasures.  I was embarrassed that I did something so stupid, but I was thankful that she had told me.  I wanted to look at it the right way ...and to correct what I did wrong.   

Today, I watch the news ...and I see flash mobs, running into convenience stores, looting whatever they can carry out quickly.   I am stunned that people would do this ...and I wonder what they've been taught by their parents, if the parents are even around, or have any knowledge what their kids are up to.

Do we teach our kids that they should have a free education.  Even though they went to college thinking they'd have to pay; would we support the idea that we can just ignore that debt.  And is it okay if our country continues to go into debt ...will our debtors simply forgive us, and erase our debt?  Can we refuse to take a job, because some of the people who work there aren't vegetarians ...or maybe they all drink Sprite, while you like Coke.  How much can we step aside from?  What should we use as our criteria, and what should we ignore?  

If an entire group involves themselves in certain activity, they may feel comfort in numbers ...and if no one says anything, that comfort level may increase to a very comfortable routine.  But if one person stands, and says it is not right ...often they are met with hostility.  

They may try to scream the guilt away, but just one person standing for what is right ...is often the beginning of others standing.  And often it is found that those who think they are in the majority ...are not.  

In our country, we are at least somewhat accustom to majority rule.  But God is not concerned with numbers.  What is right, is right ...and how else can right be defined, if not defined by God?

Mom and Dad have done much for me ...and I am thankful, though the things are too numerous to list what I am thankful for.  One more thing I will mention that Mom did ...was give me the name of Stephen.  Dad named my older brother after his own dad, who had passed away before he and Mom had gotten married.  Mom named me, the second child.   And I see clearly how telling the truth may not be very popular.  Chapter 7, of the Book of Acts, gives a quite extensive description of truth ...so much so, that the people were cut to the heart, and with gnashing of teeth, crying out loudly, they stopped their ears, and rushed him.  Soon afterwards, Stephen died ...but the truth didn't die.  

"That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more!"  When we feel this way, there is something we can do to bolster our inner strength.  We can claim our own personal treasure.  We can turn to the One who has paid our debt.  We can tell the truth about Jesus.

If you love God, you tell the truth.  If you love others, you tell them the truth about God.  If the truth is unpopular, and it offends some, and angers others ...if you love them, you tell them the truth about God.  If no one stands for the truth, then God has made it clear that we will not prosper.   We constantly hear about 'haters' ...just because there is a difference in what we believe.  I believe it is a grave inaccuracy to say those who tell the truth are 'haters' ...and I suggest no one go to the grave thinking so.   Maybe the truth could be told a little bit more gently, and maybe then it would come across more loving.  But to not tell the truth, is not loving at all.