He always used to say when he finished sharing his thoughts, “And that’s the God’s honest truth”:

Grandpa spoke what was on his mind and what he believed to be true.  He never had trouble calling a spade a spade.  Also, he didn’t try to be someone he wasn’t.  He related well with Paul who said, “by the grace of God, I am what I am” (I Corinthians 15:10).

There is something refreshing about being around someone who is at peace (in all their attributes and flaws) with who God made them to be.  In fact, Grandpa was very quiet about his successes and spoke more often of the things he had failed, sometimes even using jokes to do so.

For example, grandkids who came to share their report cards with Grandpa almost always heard the same story from him.  We would show him our “A’s” and “B’s” and he would tell us how proud he was of us.  Then he would pretend to look a little closer at the report card, while throwing in some “hmms” and “ahs” for effect.  After that, he would begin to tell us about his schooling.  It went something like this:

Grandpa: You know, when I went to school, the grading was a little bit different.

Grandchild: Oh really Grandpa, how was that?

Grandpa: Well, in my days, A stood for Awful, B was for Bad, C was Correct, D was Dandy, and F was Fantastic.

Then as we would start to laugh, he would say:

Grandpa: I got so many of  those Dandy’s and Fantastics’s, I figured I better leave school and find something more challenging to do.

Grandpa’s honesty extended to his friendships and business relationships.  Those who knew him, knew that his word was his bond, and so help him God, his handshake was as good as gold.  When he promised to do something, whether great or small, he saw to it that it was finished.  He was in modern terms, a man of his word.