Quickly Changing Attitudes

I noticed the boy and his father when they entered the restaurant. I mentioned to my husband that the boy looked so much like his dad, a person could pick the two of them out of a line up. Yes, officer those two are father and son.

The boy sat at a table next to us and was reading the table topper display about the restaurant donating five cents from every kid's meal to help fight childhood hunger.  When his dad sat down, the boy shoved the display towards him and said, "We need to eat here more often.  Read this!"  

"Wow, what a compassionate kid." I thought.

Dad glanced at the information and shoved it aside. 

"Must have gotten that compassion from mom," the teacher in me wanted to shout at him,  "Wake up! You have an incredible kid here." I know, none of my business, but kids are my business and this one was displaying something I rarely see.

Then, as often happens with first impressions, I learned snap judgments are just that--a snapshot. My take on the situation was not complete--a small window in time that didn't tell the whole story.

The father leaned closer to the boy, asked him how he was doing, and then said he needed to apologize. Whoa! What I took as indifference was really preoccupation.  Here was a dad ready to apologize to his son. That is something else I rarely see.

You're doing a great job Dad!  I should have stopped to tell you on the way out but you where engrossed in a conversation with your son.

 

So You Think You Hate Your Job...

I have been reading the book of Jeremiah.  For 40 years he was a very unwanted prophet in the land of Judea.  His contemporaries were prophets who said what the people wanted to hear.  The people loved them.  Then came Jeremiah.  He said what the Lord told him to say.  The people hated him. They hated him for 40 years.  F O R T Y    Y E A R S!

It got so bad that when people saw him they would say, "Jeremiah, what has the Lord burdened you with today?" Still he plugged along, saying not what was popular but what was right. Not what people wanted to hear but what God told him to say.

He never married.
He never had children.
People threatened to kill him.
He spent time deep in a cistern before being rescued out of the mud and gunk.
His sorrow for his fallen country was so great, he visibly wept.
And he continued speaking the truth, the word of the Lord God of Heaven's Armies.

Forty years

At the end of his life, he could have gone to Babylon and lived out his remaining days in comfort. Instead he chose to to stay with the remnant left in Judah. Still poor and unwanted, he returned to his beloved people. Jeremiah kept speaking.  Some of his prophesies unfolded before the people just as he predicted. Yet, still rejecting Jeremiah's advice and disobeying God, a group decided to head to Egypt forcing him to go with them.

F o r t y Y e a r s

He kept on keeping on.
 
F  O  R  T  Y    Y  E  A  R  S

He faithfully served.

F  O  R  T  Y    Y  E  A  R  S

For forty years it seemed that Jeremiah didn't matter. No one listened, no one cared.
Yet, when he was really down, the Lord told him, "I will take care of you."

Later Jeremiah said, "Lord, you are my strength and fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble."


Forty years
Forty years

Aging With Humor

My 87 year old mom got a call from a telephone solicitor saying she had won a trip to the Bahamas. She decided to have some fun so she told the gal that she would love to go but would need a wheel chair and someone to go with her. There was a pause on the other end, then the gal said, "I'm sorry," and hung up.

It Isn't a Treasure if One Finds No Value in It

I was picking raspberries this morning.  Several years ago my husband gave the neighbors some starts.  They planted them along the chain link fence so that our berries intertwined with theirs.  I have noticed that since they planted them, they only picked them the first year.  Each year buckets of berries fall to the ground as they ripen and drop on the other side of the fence. A couple years ago I started reaching across to get the ripe berries. To me berries are a treasure. A hint of summer when jam is spread on toast on a cold December morning. A cool refreshment dropped whole and frozen into my lemonade.  Or my favorite, picked and eaten with no bucket needed. My husband and I tease each other about picking $30 of berries in a morning.  I can't imagine paying $5 for a tiny container I could fill in less than a minute right here at home. To me a treasure.  To my neighbors a privacy fence.  Where I find value in the berries, they find value in the lush foliage.

I think religion is like that.  We choose which parts we value, which are treasures.

 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!" Matthew 13:45-46

My pearl of great value, my treasure is the one who uttered those words.

Sometimes It Takes 40 Years to Move 11 Days

I've been reading about the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years.  The journey could have taken 11 days. Caleb and Joshua looked ahead to the Promise Land, realizing part of the promise was God's protection in entering the land. Unfortunately, the people sided with the 10 scouts who looked at their adversaries and forgot to factor God into the equation. Their negativity influenced an entire nation that moving forward was a lost cause.  After a sound reprimand from Moses, some of the  tribes decided to go it alone and take the land God had promised.  Once again they forgot to factor God in. They were soundly defeated. And so the wandering became.  God provided for their basic needs.  Manna  to eat. Water to drink.  Clothes that didn't wear out.  Feet that didn't blister.  All basic needs were met.  A generation died off.

The Land Flowing With Milk and Honey was traded for a nomad life.
A generation was lost.
40 years

It could have taken 11 days.

What Was That Again!

I just spent a few (too many) minutes in the check out aisle.  According to one of the magazines on the rack, the royal couple is expecting.  The baby is a girl and the Queen, who is on her death bed, has given her blessings on the chosen name.  In other news, Sid Caesar only has weeks to live.

Hmmm, Sid Caesar died last week.  Even when they get it right, they get it wrong.