Keep Your Eye On the Prize

Little gems of wisdom are inside each of us waiting to be spoken.


My mother in law Cindy spoke such words for me today.  A story from her own life that I hope she won't mind my sharing.

First however, let me give you a little background and some insight from my own life.

I knew the Roemers that lived down the road for as long as I can remember.  They farmed next to my grandparents and subsequently my parents.  I remember the great big man that was Lawrence Roemer.  He always waved a great big wave and had a great big smile for the Morrison girls who were outside playing.  I didn't know him as well as I would come to know him one day after marrying his grandson, but I always knew he was a kind man.  Since coming to know him I have discovered a great man who loved his family, worked hard to provide for them and gently taught at times.  It is one of these teaching moments that I want to share with you.

At the beginning of each farming year in January Lawrence would sit down with his family, Audene (his wife), Cindy(his daughter) and Rick (his son in law) and begin to plan the coming year.  The first question he would always ask would be, "what is the prize for this year?"  The answers usually consisted of something that had to do with the farm, 34 ton sugar beets, 400 sacks per acre of potatoes and so on.  Each year started the same.  Lawrence went to the bank with his request for a loan with his goals firmly in place.  Periodically during the year the phrase "keep your eye on the prize" was repeated.  And every year with little exception the prize was attained, the harvest brought in and another year began.

January of 1978 started out much the same with a family meeting.  But by mid  January, unexpected and heartbreaking news.  Larry, then five years old, was diagnosed with a rare disease about which little was known at the time.  Aplastic anemia.  As a mother I wonder sometimes how you hear the news that your  little boy has a limited number of days left on the earth.  The despair that fills your heart at those first uttered words of the doctor "he will only live for a few months" would be all consuming.  This is the position that the parents of my husband found themselves in.  Stepping out of the Doctors office with no where else to go to be alone, they found a nearby phonebooth, went inside, shut the door, held each other and cried.

Thankfully, for me, the story doesn't end there. 

As Rick and Cindy were coming out of their private chapel, Lawrence found Cindy and pulled her aside.  He hugged her tightly and whispered close to her ear "what is the prize?"

Cindy, still distraught over the news, mourned to her father that there would be no prize this time.  Her little boy was going to die.

Lawrence, the son of immigrants, said "No!  There is a prize, he WILL live!  He will be home before the year is over.  That is our prize this year"

Larry came home from Seattle on Dec 21st of that same year.  Years of illness, heartbreak, doctor appointments and airplane rides while he fought with this disease will never erase the fact that the prize was attained that year and every year after.  Larry is now whole and well. 

What a legacy of faith and courage that I have to pass on to my children.

Everyone of us has something that we want to accomplish.  Define it, plan for it, then.....

"keep your eye on the prize"! as you set out to attain it.