Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Today’s Lesson/ Visiting A Shut In

On Sundays Pastor invites all the children to the front of the church for “Kid’s Zone” he teaches them a brief lesson which is always an introduction to what his sermon is going to be. He then gives the children a challenge to go out during the week and do something from the lesson. On Sunday he asked the kids to hold their feet out in front of them and to look at them. I was surprised that Selena didn’t remove her shoes and socks, but she did listen to every word Pastor had to say. His challenge was to go out and tell at least one person that Jesus loves them. At small group that night a name came up that I was very familiar with, after all I have known this woman for years, her and her husband use to live North of Spokane, when my children were younger. The wheels started spinning from that moment, and I promised Pastor that I would make the house call on this person for him.

Monday afternoon I reminded Selena what Pastor had challenged her to do through the week. I asked her if she wanted to go meet someone that Mama had known for a long time and to tell her that Jesus loves her. Selena smiled and replied that she indeed wanted to use her feet to go tell her just this message. When we arrived at the door, Betty answered the door, and of course remembered me right away. I introduced Selena to her, and with a huge smile told her, “Jesus loves you!” Of course Betty was all over Selena at that point, and invited us in offering Selena a cookie. We stayed and visited for nearly an hour before we had to leave. We left with the promise to return soon for another visit.

How many times do we go through our days, weeks, and months and seldom take the time to acknowledge those in our own neighborhood. What are we teaching our children by this? I know I don’t want Selena to grow up not acknowledging her neighbors or showing kindness and respect towards them. It took only a little bit of time out of our day, just to go make Betty’s day. It was also very nice to just see her again. Here I have known she lives in the same town and lives by herself, yet I have only been over to visit with her a couple of times since we moved here.

Selena could hardly contain herself as she told Papa just what she had done today. She was so proud of herself for her accomplishment and announced she has to tell Pastor about this. I was so proud of the way she conducted herself, while at a little bit of a loss as to really what to say, (first time in her life) she was very polite, and warm towards this woman she did not know.

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5 comments:

  1. Wonderful! I bet you both felt very good about this.

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  2. What an awesome example and way to show Christ's love to others.

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  3. It's a great way to show kindness to others. We often make a point to be nice to neighbors. When we bake something, Anna and I go around and share what we made. She was also very excited when we cooked for a family with a new child. She loves to be able to interact with people and to have a peek inside their houses too.

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  4. My father was a pastor, and he used to take me with him on calls like that. It made a huge impression on me as a child. I'm sure Selena won't soon forget the lesson, or the love.

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  5. That is a good lesson to teach Selena. I know that sometimes my husband is the more friendly neighbor than I am. I will wave and be polite, but my husband is more likely the one to go over and talk and shake their hands. I don't mean to be rude or anything, but sometimes I just don't think to do it. I think I need to try to be a better example for Anabel.

    Just to let you know...I finally got around to addind your geography/history button to my sidebar. I have been meaning to for a while but I got around to it now.

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