Where the Good Way Is

my grandmother: Elsie Gertrude Thomas (Brazelle)
1916 Marion County Tennessee High School Annual

Thus says the LORD: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest of your souls..." (Jeremiah 6:16)

I'm feverishly digging through old family records preparing for Friday's visit with my 91-year-old, Tennessee historian friend.  (So don't expect a wonderful-family-storybooks post Friday morning, beloved, but watch for a full report ASAP!)   

Nonie Webb's latest book, Hale's Bar Lock and Dam: The World's First Multipurpose Hydrolectric Lock and Dam, was released earlier this spring, and in my search down old roads once traveled, I've found that Grandmother was a teacher at a Hale's Bar School in 1917, met my grandfather, Oscar Franklin Brazelle, there, and married him that same year. My great-grandfather, Wyley Woodville Brazelle, worked at the Hale's Bar Lock and Dam and built a home there. Granddaddy's sister, Bula, and her husband, Burless Monroe Blevins, lived in that home near Hale's Bar until the late 1970s. I remember visiting the quaint house as a child and playing on the wrap-around porch with my brother, Mark. 

What I can't find is the exact location of the old home place. I'd love to try to find it, but everyone who knew how to get there has moved on to heaven.

In the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, the LORD beckons His people to look for the ancient paths, the good way, and walk in it. 

But the people said, "We will not walk in it!"

The LORD set a watchman over them heralding, "Pay attention to the warning of the trumpet!"

But the people said, "We will not pay attention!" 

The LORD said, "Then hear, O nations, what will  happen to you. Behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, because they have not paid attention to My words; and as for My law, they have rejected it."

O United States of America, stand by the old roads and ask God for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it and find rest for your souls before it's too late and we reap the fruit of our evil devices!