Aug. 28, 2008 - Sing Praise!
Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness.
Hosea 10:12 (NASB)
First a small confession...it was probably not my finest moment to term all the parents in my district who chose to send their kid to full day K as under "group psychosis" and "clearly insane." I'm not positive, but that may have been just a shade over the top. And telling my cousin I was going to "squash him like a bug" on my blog, even if meant in humor, was probably not nice either.
Conviction comes from many sources. Wait, check that. Conviction comes from one source--the Spirit, but in many guises.
Mine often comes from my sister. She used to just be my sister-in-law and I liked her just fine then, but in the past couple of years her husband walked out on her and his family, leaving the usual trail of destruction and devastation that such actions always entail. So, now I just call her my sister. And she's awfully convicting. Without ever meaning to be.
I yell at her a lot. I call them "pep talks" and "suggestions." And she amusedly (or maybe not) pretends to listen and then uses her wisdom to sort the rare good idea from the dross. She is always right on.
I realized last night that so many of my "suggestions" are with a practical eye toward what reality appears to be in her life. And reality can look pretty grim when you're a full time, single, home educating parent of three kids and share your home with an aging and sometimes critical mother all while trying to build a brand new business that will allow you to continue to put most of your efforts toward parenting and home educating.
As I am chatting with my sister last night, she mentions she tested (that's her business--testing and tutoring home school students) a family with whom we are both acquainted. I know this family to be pretty wealthy. Second home in Florida wealthy. The husband has been sick and unable to work for several months, but is now back to his business. My sister mentions that she has something "funny" to tell me.
When booking the tests, she confessed she just felt she should do something to help this family. They must be "struggling." I choke back the urge to "suggest" that maybe a fledgling business owner with three kids might be "struggling" a little more. Anyway, my sister gave them her very best testing rate even though they were well past the deadline for qualifying for such an early bird special. And of course she never mentioned to them that she was extending this favor.
I must have been chewing something as I couldn't get out the words fast enough to yell at her when she tells me, "And then the mom writes me a check for the testing and THEN writes me a second check and she says it is 'just for me'--not bills, not the business, just something for myself. Isn't that funny? Here we were trying to bless each other!"
Do I even have to mention that the check she received was many times the discount she extended?
James 1:27 (and yes, I bumped into James 1:26 too...hence my apologies above!) tells us: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Does anyone doubt that today's widows and orphans in our country are the wives and kids left behind when a husband decides the family just isn't fun anymore? We all share a responsibility here. But in the midst of trying to fulfill our responsibilities, don't be surprised if you meet someone like my sister who might look to be the needy one but is searching around for someone to bless as well.
And if you do, you probably should consider where you're standing holy ground.
Blessings, Holly
