Expect A Miracle: My Life & Ministry by Oral Roberts

Author:Oral Roberts [Roberts, Oral]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-06-22T16:59:08+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Ronnie—What Might Have Been

RONALD DAVID, my oldest son, born October 22, 1943, was the intellectual of my children. As someone pointed out, "Ronnie was born smart." Ronnie instinctively knew what to do with books. He loved them, and when he was a child, Evelyn could scarcely keep enough of them in his hands.

Ronnie was a handsome little boy and quick to learn. When he was three years old, he could repeat my sermons almost verbatim.

When we pastored a church in Enid, Oklahoma, I had him come to the stage and sing the action song, "Don't Turn Him Away," and he did it like a grown-up.

When he was in the sixth grade at Bixby, they elected him to be the editor of their little school paper, and in a school play he played the part of a king with appropriate robe and crown. We thought he was every inch a king.

Edison High School was Tulsa's newest and strongest public school in academics. Of course, Ronnie made straight A's there. That was just the way he was constructed. Eventually, his grades and other talents earned him the privilege of being a foreign exchange student in Germany for a summer. Three months later, when he arrived home, he was fluent in the German language. I just shook my head because it was far beyond my language ability.

One day when I returned home from a crusade, Evelyn filled me in on Ronnie's future plans.

"Oral," she said, "Ronnie wants to attend the University of Kansas on an academic scholarship."

Although I had nothing against Kansas University, I knew Ronnie could probably get a scholarship to any university, including Stanford. I decided to talk to him.

Setting him down, I said, "Ronnie, you can go all the way and be the first Roberts to earn a doctorate. You have a thirst for knowledge, you have a natural understanding of the Bible, you know my ministry, you can speak well, and you pick up languages easily. Why not go to Stanford? That's one of the greatest academic institutions in America."

He applied, and to his surprise, a letter soon came from Stanford stating that he was accepted. The admissions people liked that he was an honor student in a good high school, a foreign exchange student, and a member of the orchestra of Edison. It all combined to show his all-around ability and aptitude to learn.

Ronnie took my advice and went to Stanford. I didn't realize it then, but I made one of the most serious mistakes of my life.

After the first semester, he called me in tears. Over the phone he said, "Dad, for the first time in my life, I think I'm in trouble for not knowing any longer what I believe."

I flew to his side, met his professors, and sat in on some of his classes. All was sweetness and light while I was there. I was even asked to speak to some of the clubs on campus and once to more than three hundred students in a large lounge.

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