Turkey Talk

“ If you stand in the meat section at the grocery store long enough, you start to get mad at turkeys.  There’s turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastromi…Some one needs to tell the turkey, man, just be yourself.” ~~ Mitch Hedberg, comedian

We’ve  been seeing a lot of turkeys in our yard lately, but I like them. 

In fact, I just looked out the window and spied a group of them on the front lawn.   ”Wow!” I commented whistfully, “We live in a nature preserve.  Aren’t we lucky?”  To which my son replied, ”Wish I had a gun.”   

Benjamin Franklin agreed with me, though, turkey-wise.  In fact, he wanted them for our national emblem –  “For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison [to the Bald Eagle] a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.” *

Why all this turkey-talk?  Because, although they eat bugs and roost in trees, there is something about the turkey that I particularly admire and want to imitate – they’re regular and dependable.  They eat at about the same time morning and afternoon every day and fly up into the trees to sleep at about the same time every night. I could use some of that (the regularity, that is, not the tree-sleeping, or the bug-eating.)

I can just hear Mr. Franklin again as I type this: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” 

 Hmmm, I would change that a bit (just a bit, Ben.  Don’t look so frowny.) –

 ”Early to bed, early to rise, [and quick to read the Bible] makes a man [or woman] healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  And one should have the habit of doing what is read in the Bible, too, not just reading it.   Yup, that would chase the enemy of our souls out of the yard, red-coat and all!

“Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at my doorposts.” Proverbs 8:24

The Gobbler’s Prayer:  (click on the verse references to read the verses)Thank you, Father, that you love me and want good things for me (Jeremiah 29:11).  Help me to love you, too,  and help me to have good habits, like  “roosting” at regular times and gobbling up your Word. (Jeremiah 15:16) Daily!  In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

 *Famous Quotes/Famous Sayings