Friday, January 25, 2008

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Yesterday morning at the breakfast table, I told David that I would pick him up from school then we would be taking the items we had gathered for the homeless to the shelter. Last week we pulled out unused blankets, pillows, games, hotel shampoos and soaps to donate. This was the day we would deliver our goodie basket.

But, to our dismay David took a decidedly dim view of this. "I don't want to go" was his response, not the response I had hoped for or expected. The conversation went much like this for several minutes, "Why do I have to go?" We then realized that for some reason he thought this was a punishment. After explaining that this is a calling that we have as Christians and reminding him of the good Samaritan and how we are suppose to help our neighbors his attitude changed. He willing accepted our plans.

When Rich and I picked him up from school he was back to not wanting to go, cutting into play time is really rough. But, he quickly got back into the mood. They say no good deed goes unpunished and in this case it was true. I had checked the shelter's web-site to make sure we would be there when they were open and to get ideas of what we should donate. However, after getting there with our basket of goodies we found the doors firmly locked with a note saying that due to budget cuts the hours of the shelter had to be cut considerably. We plan on going back on Saturday to deliver our basket and my husband Rich, who designs web sites for our church and a few businesses, will be offering his service for free to the shelter to help keep their site up to date.

We then went to visit our friend Mrs. Walker, who recently came home from the hospital, but they were not at home. We arrived home to find that friends had called and invited us to dinner. If we had been not been running these errands we would have been sitting down at the table and missed this time of fellowship with friends. So what started out as us trying to give to others God turned to benefit us!

2 comments:

Kelly @ The Barefoot Mama said...

I love that photo of you and David, Kim! You continue to inspire me with your dedication to others. :o) So many people just talk about doing the work of the Lord but your family is really walking in His footsteps. It really means a lot to me to see your great example!

P.S. What did you have for dinner? YUM!

P.P.S. Hooray that Mrs. Walker is home! She was the elderly friend in another post, right?

Anonymous said...

We have been so blessed when we have been in need, David's hospital stay, with loving Christians who were willing to open their homes and hearts to us it really makes you want to pass it on.
Our friends served homemade meatloaf, mac-n-cheese, corn and apple pie. We only brought the bagels from a little shop in town. It was nice not having to cook or clean.
Mrs. Walker is the friend I have been posting about. We will be visiting her tomorrow. David has missed her so much.
Thanks for your comments. It helps that David is at an age that these are things we want to instill in him and he can take an active part in. When David was young we wanted to hide some of life's harsh realities from him, but now he needs to learn how very much God has blessed us.
Good luck this week-end with the house projects!