Secret Promise by Mary Lou Cheatham

Author:Mary Lou Cheatham [Cheatham, Mary Lou]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781449734022
Publisher: WestBow Press
Published: 2012-01-16T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

A Fork in the Road

After Caroline’s departure, Jake arrived at a divergence in his course. The low road would take him into despair. He could remain indignant at God for taking his family and now the precious one he wanted near him.

Traveling down that path, he could give up on winning her heart, which was encased in a thick fortress with only a rare light beam of her feelings escaping as it did when he kissed her on the River Road. Along the way he would encounter a plethora of young women who were either self-serving females with their own agendas or mysterious new ones requiring an expenditure of effort to learn their quirks. These exercises failed to fascinate him.

Caroline had taken his heart, and he had abandoned his plan not to fall in love with her. The only road that could ever reach her heart was the high one. Did she understand herself well enough to show him the path? It was a twisted trail he felt compelled to discover.

He needed help, but he had turned his back on the only Help available. He had taken a few baby steps back toward the Lord, but he required more. Abruptly he turned his surrey around and headed toward the McBride home. Brother George, the wise old preacher, would know what he should do.

“You got time to help a suffering man?” Jake asked.

“Pull up a chair, young man. I got all the time you need,” Brother George said.

They sat on the porch and talked. Rachel wandered out when she grew interested in what they were saying and announced she’d go back inside to lie down when she grew tired.

“Brother George, I have a spiritual puzzle I need you to help me solve.” He relived the story of how he had lost his family and dreams for the future.

“Like Job,” Brother George nodded. “Yep, like Job.”

“That’s what Caroline said.”

“Did she tell you how Job’s life ended?”

“Yes, and she told me to read the book.”

“The Lord restored more to Job as was taken away. Compare that to you, brother. The Lord is already restoring your blessings. It’s true your family was taken from you. I pray they are with the Father in heaven and safe in the arms of Jesus. If they are, as hard as it is for you to accept, they are a thousand times better off than they were here treading their way through this pilgrim land.”

Jake sniffled as he twirled his hat.

George didn’t stop. “It’s the truth you ain’t going to get to go off and study in the next year or two to be a druggist or be a research scientist, but you’ve got a fine mercantile store. Wait a minute. You could sell it all, maybe, and leave out of here. Or you could hire a manager to take care of it long enough for you to go to school and come back. You don’t want to though. If you did, you’d have done it already.

“So you are responsible to do your best with what you’ve got here.

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