August 9
A few weeks ago Kathy and I took a cruise to Bermuda with one of my prayer partners and his wife. It was awesome. They renewed their vows under a moongate and Kathy and I were re-inspired to rekindle our romance. And I was reminded for the zillionth time that Kathy is very unimpressed by whatever knowledge I have, whatever spiritual insights I provide others and whatever faith I have that God will do great things in the church. She is, however, inspired when I love her well. When I don't love her well,. . . . .let's just say that she doesn't relate well to clanging cymbals, and a husband who makes great sacrifices for others at the expense of those closest to him.
August 10 - Patience?
My daughter says I don't completely stop at stop signs. I'll make her pay when I teach her to drive. But I also don't stop very well for people. They are more important that stop signs (at least when I'm not driving). For them I need to stop, look and listen. I get so impatient when I feel interrupted when I'm in the middle of something. God, help me to just stop, "be all there" to the person in front of me, and listen to him or her, no thinking ahead to what's next on my agenda, no looking at my watch, no looking past the person and thinking about something. Lord, help me to stop, look and listen.
God, please keep flooding me with gratitude to you so that envy is kept at bay, and help me to keep my mind off my prideful self.
School begins soon and I'm always interested in the most important thing my children say about a teacher they like when they come home after the first day. It's always something like "the teacher's nice". I almost never hear "he/she sure knows a lot, or has great experiences or is 'hot' (hope I never hear that one). The important word seems to be nice. This is a good reminder to me of the significance of being "kind" to other people.
One of my younger sisters told us about her fourth grade teacher, the most beautiful woman in the world.The whole family wanted to attend the first PTA meeting just to see this vision of loveliness. Meeting her was a surprise. The woman was well into her 60s, deeply wrinkled from too many cigarettes and too much sun. She was over 6 ft tall, topped with a tower of bleached, teased hair. Her very ample figure was enhanced by a short, tight black dress. Our sister saw this teacher as beautiful and looked at her with such love. Jayne, my sister, saw her teacher's heart, not her outward appearance. It's been almost 50 years since we met the teacher, but the impression made by Jayne's eyesight has enriched my life. The memory has become more beautiful over the years. Your children described their teachers as nice, the same way my children described theirs. I've always wanted to have Jayne's eyesight.
ReplyDeleteI attended the early service at CLC, then went to PLCP to sing in the choir. I had some time to kill between services, so was reading in Ecclesiastes and came across 6:11. "The more words, the less the meaning. And how does that profit anyone? This reminded me of how you compared the two speaches at Gettysburg.
ReplyDeleteRosetta Hoffman
Rosetta Hoffman