Gestures of Love

Did you ever get the look from your Mother in church? More than likely it was during the preaching service and you were either, talking, swinging your legs to and fro or kicking the pew in front of you. Maybe you grabbed the song book or just kept wiggling around in your seat. The look settled you down immediately because it promised you were heading into a danger zone.

Perhaps you were sitting in front of Bro. Joe T Wilson and laughed out loud when he stuck his lower teeth out at you! Or you yelled at your brother for taking a color from you. If the preacher was yelling, why couldn’t you yell too? You never saw it coming! The pinch grabbed you by surprise on that soft spot at the back of your arm just above your elbow, or the side of your leg, maybe even an ear. Whatever was within reach, if you got the pinch, you had really messed up and the “look” told you so.

The snatch, grab and tuck, only occurs when the look and the pinch don’t work. For instance, during one of Bro. Conrad Glover’s long prayers you yelled AMEN four times before your mother could clamp her hand over your mouth, throw you under her arm, fly down that isle and take you outside. Professional football players have got nothing on your Mother when it comes to moves.

I often wondered if my Mother stood at the mirror and practiced the look until she perfected it. Did she warm her fingers up before the pinch? How many times did she have to practice grabbing me, pulling me up and over a pew and throwing me under her arm without knocking down a single person? Surely they must have training classes for perfecting such moves!

As I grew up I came to understand you naturally inherit those skills from your Mother. I knew how the pinch felt, therefore I decided I would not use that on my kids unless absolutely necessary. Many a times though I would snap my fingers and point at my children giving them the “look”. I watched as they recognized the trouble that was brewing.

God knows us, yet He loves us. Mothers are gifted with these talents from God and He expects her to use them as often as necessary and He blesses her for it. Somehow, years later, the memory lingers but the pain of the pinch has faded and love takes its place.

Keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Proverbs 6:20

Life Lessons

For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Psalm 91:11

I have often said, if I have a guardian angel, I am sure by now it has two broken wings, is in a wheel chair and being treated for post traumatic stress syndrome and telling God….she’s alive and that’s good.

The things we put ourselves through in life! If my friend was going to jump off a bridge, would I do it too? No! Well, first of all, I’m scared of heights-you won’t get me near the edge; second that’s dangerous! As my angel breathes a sigh of relief, I turn around and spend money on frivolous things instead of paying a debt I owe. I make bad choices and my angel is shaking her head in despair.

This is what happens when we make the choices instead of following God as we are instructed. I have made many wrong turns in life, and there was a time I felt God’s plan for me was to struggle. But, I began to look at each of my struggles as life lessons and learned from them. With God, I turned a life of turmoil into blessings and I saw God work through me to reach others. I often wonder if my guardian angel will ever forgive me. I thank God every day that He loves us enough to have patience with us and desires to guide our troubled lives, even when we get on the wrong path in life.

OUR BEST

“Hear ye, the Master’s call, give me thy best” So how does your worship stack up? Does it reflect an enthusiastic delight in God? Is your singing, praising and praying, listening and attending to the preaching of the Word of God where it should be? What about your attendance and involvement in the church’s worship and ministries, does it measure up or is it substandard?

A story comes to mind I once read, where during a soloist’s number at church, a young grandson tugged on his grandmother’s sleeve and whispered, "She can’t sing very well, can she?" Knowing the woman had a deep love for the Lord, the grandmother said, "She sings from her heart. That’s what makes it good." He nodded thoughtfully. Several days later as he and his grandmother were singing along with the car radio, he stopped and said, "Granny, you sing from your heart, don’t you?"

Is your heart giving it’s best? God does not expect perfection from us. What He does expect is our best. “For, be it great or small, that is His test. Do then the best you can, not for reward, not for the praise of man, but for the Lord."

Colossians 3:23 (KJV) "And whatsoever you do, do it heartily (with enthusiasm), as to the Lord, and not unto men"