Tag Archives: Sunday School

Little Things Mean a Lot

10 Jun

My Take

 DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and Artist

One of our adult Sunday School teachers happened to mention the other day he was sitting in the open door of his garage looking out and talking to God when a neighbor going by on her bike stopped to ask if he would fill her water bottle. He gave her a new one. He has done that before.

Every Sunday I see a man all dressed up in his black suit with his Bible in his hand waiting for a ride to church. He stands as straight as a soldier and I admire his faithfulness and that of the person who picks him up, sometimes after we have gone by. They don’t go to our church.

Funny what happens when you do only one little thing over and over. Your good deeds add up.

A woman in my class is a red-hat lady and she loves thrift store sales. You wouldn’t believe the bags of children’s clothes she finds in perfect condition for little or nothing. She brings them to church for families who can’t afford a lot of clothes for growing children.

Our other Sunday School teacher works at the hospital as a volunteer to take people to their cars in wheel-chairs. He’s a father himself and he gets a big kick out of being around teenagers who volunteer for the same job. What a precious counselor I’m sure he is.

I know someone who goes to the home of her aged mother-in-law where other members of the family care diligently for her and bathes her twice a week. She makes it special with soaps, and powders and takes supper for both of them that evening.

We hear so much about movers and shakers, about heroes, and heads of charities, but we don’t hear that much about the little people doing the little deeds many times a year. I’d like to celebrate them, wouldn’t you?

The song, “Little Things Mean a Lot,” is a love song, and why not. We show love with our small, faithful, routine deeds. Maybe we’ll discover that they pile up and if we could see the accumulation of them or the way they have changed people’s lives, we’ll be surprised. Won’t that be encouraging?

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Mother Said

1 Apr

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Photo by Melodie Hendrix

Photo by Melodie Hendrix

This week I wrote the wrong day in my journal. Wait, before you get in a tizzy, think about what Mother would have said. “You’ll never know the difference a hundred years from now.” You’re right, Mother, I thought and went on with what I was doing.

Like most mothers, mine had an abundance of things to say. Sometimes she was joking, or I hoped she was, as when she would say, “Now don’t be afraid of the storm, if lightning strikes you, you’ll never know the difference.” I must say, I have no fear of lightning, so she must have been on the right track. Afraid someone might kidnap you? Here’s what Mother would say: “Don’t worry, the minute they get you under a street light they’ll bring you right back.” Want to run away to Grandmother’s house, but wonder how you’re going to get the fifty miles down the mountain by yourself when you’re only a kid? Mother’s suggestion: “Here’s a nickel, don’t spend it all in one place.”

How about if your dress has a small spot on it and you’re ready to go out the door? “They’ll never know the difference on a galloping horse.”

Mother had some nice saying, too. She learned them from Auntie Elvira her first Sunday school teacher, who was my first Sunday school teacher too. When my brother and I fought the word was, “Be ye kind, one to another, tender, loving, forgiving each other.” Okay, Mom, I’ll try. If I wanted to say something bad about someone who had hurt my feelings she’d caution, “Ask yourself: is it kind, is it true, and do I have to tell it.” At least one of those is going to have a no, so forget it.

Ephesians 6:1 Children obey your parents for this is right.

 

1a

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Doing My Own Thing

5 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

I hardly ever get bored even though I don’t have a job and our nest is empty. Now, as never before I’m thankful for the lessons my parents taught me even as a very young child.

The lessons go together:

1. Work at whatever needs to be done.

2. If you say you’re bored, Mother will be certain to give you a job to do.

3. Its better if you find your own thing to do and don’t wait for Mother to assign you one. You’ll probably enjoy it more.

I walk, exercise, help clean our house, do laundry, cook, garden, and look after my husband and two cats. They all look after me, too. I read, paint, and write. I teach Sunday School, sing on the church praise team, read, blog and email. I have a visit with a friend or relative almost everyday-every day if you count my husband.

I took painting lessons for about fifteen years, but now I’m doing my own thing. It’s easier with watercolors than with oils because it’s not such a big project to get all set up, but oils are so beautiful and buttery and make such gorgeous paintings that I don’t blame people for loving them. Our art league has open studios where you can go and just paint and everybody else is painting too (all kinds, from oils, to pastels, acrylics, watercolors, mixed media) and you can exchange information and encouragement. You can talk about your grandchildren, or muse together over what this world is coming to.

I’ve discovered that I like some crafts too. I have a wooden birdhouse I bought at a Hobby/Art store and I’ve been assembling things to decorate it with. I can leave projects set up in my garage which my husband and I have turned into an all around workroom for both of us. It is, of course, the messiest room in the house, but people seem to like it all the same.

There’s no profit in being bored or lonely.

Some things that can bore me are:

1. Daytime T. V.

2. Compulsive shopping

3. Listening to chronic complainers.

Some things that can make me feel alone are:

1. Going over the past and all the things I coulda, shoulda, woulda done.

2. Holding a grudge.

3. Worrying about the future.

Life is short; eat dessert first. (Ernestine Ulmer, writer, b. 1925). O. K. so I’m watching my weight, but there are other things like dessert and I hope and pray I’ll keep enjoying them for a long time to come.

Ecclesiastes 3

 

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