The author took the title for this book from many ministers and church people. They both frequently will say something, and then say, “God Told Me to Tell You . . .” The author knows God hasn’t told him to tell anybody anything (at least not directly), but God put these sayings on his heart. When people say, “God Told me to Tell You . . .,” the author believes it is understood that they are trying to tell you what they feel is for your own good, not necessarily from the mouth or voice of the Almighty God. No one we know of has ever heard a word from the voice of the Almighty God. If they did hear a voice, it didn’t come from God, but from their inner voice. The saying, “Over the Celestial Wireless,” meaning, the words came from a direct line to the Almighty God. Though, God didn’t actually tell them to say the words. These sayings came from the author’s cerebral consciousness. He simply sat in his easy chair and forced his brain to conceive these sayings. The sayings were forced, but they were a labor of love, and not a great deal of hard work. Most of these sayings came straight from the author’s own conceptions. This collection is more so his than any of his previous books of sayings.
The sayings mostly deal with his life experiences. He has come from a mighty long ways: from a farm in East Texas (plowing a mule from sunup to sunset, cutting wood, fixes fences, shepherding animals—with only a trail to his house until he was six years of age, rats running through the walls, rain coming through the roof, wind coming through the cracks in the walls, hot in summer and cold in winter); to college in East Texas (where he was out of place); to Houston; to the military; and then to a South Suburb of Chicago (where he experienced cultural shock). These sayings detail his benefit from these experiences. He has been in a South Suburb of Chicago for the past forty-six years. He finally made a fairly harmonious adjustment to his environment by having better living conditions.
There have been some good, bad, and ugly times; and he is seventy-three-years old, has a few medical problems, but still alive and kicking. You will find his sayings interesting—to say the least.
The author has tried his level best to not include sayings from other of his books of sayings, and he has also tried not to repeat the same sayings in this book; although, a few of them may have similar meaning. None of these sayings were deliberately taken from other sources.
Some will say these sayings are nothing exceptional, but they came to the author for a reason, and he simply wrote what came to him. Anytime a higher power had a hand in something it is for a reason. The author hopes the reader can enjoy these sayings and put them to good use. The author feels that he is not capable of producing such sayings without the help of the Almighty God. All these sayings are just some thoughts that came to his consciousness over a period of several months. When a thought came to the author, he had to immediately write it down or else would forget to do so. He lost a lot of thoughts by not immediately writing them down, saying he would write them down later. That’s what happens when you are seventy-three-years old.
Some of these statements are sayings, some are general advice, and some are simply personal thoughts. I am proud that these sayings are completely my own. I did rely on my memory to tell me which sayings I had used before, and my memory does leave something to be desired. These sayings are from the author’s perspective and are the truth. Some of these thoughts are rather mundane, while others are more profound. Most of what the author says is well known, and only serves as a reminder of how we need to live our lives. Some of the categories in this book are rather fluid, and sayings could fit as well in one category as another. The author made an arbitrary decision and placed them in one of the categories.
He has written several other books on the plight of African Americans, and several books of sayings. They all can be found @ amazon.com by Jay Thomas Willis.