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A Gentle Giant has Passed

Ralph R. Jones Sr.

Ralph Rayburn Jones, Sr.,  84, of Germantown, TN passed from this life and into the presence of the Lord Jesus on November 2, 2021, after a short illness.  He was preceded in death by his parents, Richard Anderson and Lillian Jones, brother Gerald Glen Jones, all of Pontotoc, MS, his first wife, Caroline Frances (Stewart) Jones of Longview TX,  as well as his sweet granddaughter, Jessica Louise Jones and his grandson, USMC Sgt. Garrett Anderson Misener. 

He leaves behind his lovely bride, Peggy Jones, of fifty-one years.  He was a dedicated father to six children: Karen (Marcus) Russell, Ralph Jr. (Joey) (Anne) Jones, Ray (Marilyn) Jones, Jannette (Daniel) Zaccagnino, James (Rita) Jones, and John Jones; along with twelve surviving grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

He was well known in the home building industry in the Midsouth for over 60 years as the “designer of award-winning homes since 1964” and was referred to by the Memphis Commercial Appeal, as “the man of 10,000 plans” through his company, Ralph Jones Home Plans.

Ralph loved to write stories of country life from back in the day. He has been published in many smalltown periodicals including the Pontotoc Progress Newspaper, Tom Bigbee Newsletter and several national magazines such as Reminisce and Country Days. He also enjoyed drawing “Cousin Cornpone” cartoons which were sure to elicit a groan or a giggle from his friends and family.

Ralph gave his life to the Lord as a young man at the First Baptist Church of Pontotoc, MS, and was instrumental in bringing several people to the lord throughout his life, including his best friend from College, Bill Morris.  Ralph most recently was a member of Bellevue Baptist Church and enjoyed serving as an ordained deacon in several churches.  He participated in many church and volunteer ministries throughout the years. 

In his early years, he led the music in small churches throughout northwest Mississippi.  He spent more than 20 years portraying a Magi in the Singing Christmas Tree and a Pharisee in the Memphis Passion Play at Bellevue. He was the Captain of the Bellevue Banner Bearers, participated in the Adult Handbell Choir, sang bass in the adult choir and the “Him Singers”, played the part of “Big Toe” in the beloved children’s musical (which is the name Dr. Rogers called him from that point forward).  He volunteered in the church nursery holding the precious bed babies and “humming” them to sleep with his reverberating bass voice when they were inconsolable. He loved “walking security” at the church with his retired police buddies. He participated in, and designed the logo for, the R.O.M.E.O. Club (Retired Old Men Eating Out).  He also loved being a greyhound bus driver for several churches for 40 or more years taking chilcren, youth and adults to camps, mission trips and choir tours. He truly had the gift of service. 

Ralph in his younger years (collage age)
Kindergarten
Wowza!

Wow! God is incomprehensible!

So, I do this Miracle Morning thing. I started a long time ago (2016) and got derailed late last year and earlier this year due to a bunch of trips and life falling apart. I just got out of the habit because of a schedule that was all over the place. SO, I willingly am deciding to get it going again because I’m happier when this part of my life is in order.

So, on my new day #5, (October 11, 2019) this is how it all went down. I come up to The Fuzzy Kilt to meditate, read, journal, etc. I like to read some scriptures and meditate on God for a while. I also listen to podcasts and was currently listening to the book via YouTube called Crazy Love by Frances Chan. I just listened to the forward/preface of that book and he talked about before we come to God and start asking for a lot of things, we should first come before God, and before we say a word, we should stand in AWE before God and just worship his magnitude. Nothing programmed, no music, no effort, just reflect on how awesome God is.

I love nature. When I look at anything in nature I wonder how in the world anyone can believe in something like the Big Bang Theory because there is simply no way what I see in nature could have simply just happened by accident. The different trees I see through my windows. Flowers and the intricacies there, bugs, bees, birds, how did they turn out so different, yet all perfectly individual.

As I began to meditate today considering the magnificence of God and the insignificance of humans, and more importantly, my own insignificance, I tried to dumb God’s mind down to my own mind to try to get a glimpse into the mind of God using my own stupid head. This is how this line of thinking came about.

Yesterday I heard something along the line of if our minds were the size of a soda can and God’s mind was a great and mighty river, by scooping up 12 oz of water into my can is like me trying to understand the mind of God. If I can only understand 12 oz of God’s mind and there is so much more out there to understand, I am really not even capable to understand much of God.

THIS IS HOW I IMAGINE God TO BE:

How insignificant are we as humans to God? We are like ants wandering around yet we THINK we have important work to do. We go here and there carrying our burdens; through what appears to us as a mighty rushing river, running through vast lands; a problem to be forded. Turns out, on God’s side of seeing this scenario, is only a trickle of run-off water after a gentle rain, cutting a tiny track along its way, totally insignificant to God: unnoticeable one would think, but not.

It blows my mind to think how God actually orchestrates all these intricate yet insignificant “streams” or circumstances, to meander in and out, under and through, and around our lives specifically to affect my life. God designs these events just for me as an individual all to lead, guide and push me in a particular direction, FOR MY OWN GOOD.

How many of us humans would dare to fathom doing that to, or for, one tiny specific ant? Would we divert his path to save his life? Would we even think that by sending a single drop of water, we could not only change his path, but improve his life, (though, to him, it might feel like a catastrophe).

Yet, this is how much God loves us, that He is willing to come down to our level, to level the playing field, and do supernatural things that alter the course of our lives to somehow make our lives better.

Then, He does the same for every human alive, like six billion chess games being played simultaneously. I can’t even fathom the mind of God and its vast capacity for these things, yet He loves ME! A nobody from nowhere! He loves me as an individual. He knows how many hairs are on my head (and probably how many I’ve lost since time began for me. He knows my name. While my name may be written in the “Lamb’s Book of Life”, he doesn’t need it for reference if He wants to chat with me. (The main problem here, is that I rarely have much time to spend with HIM!). He’s the maker of the entire universe. There are billions of galaxies, maybe more, probably a lot more, just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there. He chooses to move in my life, to gently (or sometimes forcibly) guide me in the direction he wants me to travel. Most of the time I go kicking and screaming, but he still guides me. He guides all my friends, he guides all human beings. Yet we still think we are as smart as God; or at least we ACT like we think we are as smart as God.

Realizing just how much God does, and just how much I am incapable of doing, I wonder to myself Why in the world would I ever try to play God? God is incredible. WHY does he choose to interact with me? I think this is where the phrase came from, when a preacher will say something like, “This message is for each and every one of you.” Use it is intended for us all, but it is also intended JUST FOR ME! If there were no one else on earth, God would have come just for me! How can this be? That the God of the universe has time for everyone AND time for just ME? WOW!

The Rent House dilemma

Well, I haven’t posted a lot lately, but thought I’d add a little bit today.

I have a dilemma.  I finished construction of a beautiful Rent house in Cordova, TN back in July.  I have posted signs around it (including a HUGELY BUSY main road, I have listed it for sale in the Newspaper as well as online, (at least 30 websites have my house listed) as well as the Military Off-Base Housing site to try to attract military guys/families.

It is priced well, or so say my investor friends, but it has yet to rent.  I know it is probably “user error”, (i.e. I’m doing something wrong) but I can’t figure out what that is.

I started off advertising it at $1365, which is what Zillow had suggested.  But after no hits, I took it to $1295, then $1199, THEN $1095… I got LOTS of hits when I took it to $1095, but all of them had CRAZY credit issues from multiple Bankruptcies to Evictions and even one Meth Felony Conviction!!!  I can’t put someone in my house who could possibly start cooking Meth again!  WOW!

Once I got the house down to $1095, one of my really experienced Landlords told me that I had the rent WAY TOO LOW!  So, I contacted a Real Estate Manager to try to list it on her end for a great fee.  I sent in all my paperwork, but it’s been 3 weeks and she still doesn’t have a sign in the yard.

Just a bit frustrated at this point and don’t know what else to do to get it rented.  I would LOVE some feedback.

 

I’ve joined the captcha team

I SO hate those things that show up when you try to comment on a website or blog, you know, like for Ticketmaster when you have to type those funky letters that are so difficult to read you miss them 3 or 4 times before you get one right so that you can search for tickets, well, I’ve joined that team because I was getting SO MUCH SPAM!  Ugg Boots and some weird hand-bag site… If you know me, I am neither an ugg fan nor a handbag fan, so now, hopefully, those idiots will go away.  I apologize but you, my dear readers and commenters will need to answer a simple math problem (feel free to take off your shoes to add and subtract the problems that are presented).  I apologize in advance, but hope this serves us all better in the future.

Janne