Moppy Hair--Compassion

"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ," Galatians 6:2

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Reaching into someone’s life with the compassion God sets as His standard just never seems to come as naturally as I’d like. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. What does come naturally?---preserving my own stuff, caring for my own needs, turning the other cheek to need and chasing hard after my own desires.

Judgment’s often hard on the heels of this selfishness; they are ugly kissing cousins of one another. Judgment blinds us to the underlying needs even when they are glaring us right in the face. If I judge the situation for how it does not measure up to my standards then compassion is the furthest thing from my mind/action. I’m off scott free to go and build up my own little mountain of stuff, never realizing the quiet treasures awaiting me that would have revealed the smallness of my mountain in an instant.

How we reach into the lives around us looks different at every age but it always seems to be rooted in a desire to invite God into our every day lives. Not our cleaned up/well managed lives. Just our every day, messy lives. We begin to love when we truly experience His love for us which it seems is when we are most vulnerable and in need.

Around here, we’ve realized we can’t wait until our lives are cleaned up/everyone’s getting along/sin patterns are under control/work is caught up---if we did, well we’d still just be pursuing our own very small kingdoms. I’m not sure what’s sadder---that we’d never take the steps further into His kingdom and find the joy that only comes from reaching out beyond ourselves or the blessings others would be robbed of by our selfishness.

The other day I heard someone complaining about the amount of money our nation spends on foreign aid. It’s interesting that in our nation obsessed with things like ipads, diet dog food and celebrity gossip we would begrudge the world our contribution to remain “#1”. We like the status of #1 but wish it didn’t come with such a high calling on our purse strings. We want the kings ransom for a pauper’s bill.

It seems this begrudging comes from failing to really acknowledge all our own blessings. The blessing that envelop most of our lives often only gets noticed for their accompanying hassles. Our homes are cluttered with too much blessing, we are over weight from an abundance of food, the medicines that nations pray will make it into their borders sometime in the next year annoys us when we have to wait an extra 20 minutes at the pharmacy for their pick up, clothes spilling out of overstuffed drawers try our patience … the list could go on and on but the result is always the same----when we fail to see the blessing we will always find cause for cursing.

This morning we were racing around for school, as we always are despite the fact that we are the latest bus in the county. William disappeared after being chastised for not getting his bathroom business done before breakfast----to go brush his teeth and hair? No. He came down with a bag of Legos and the same moppy hair he’d gone up with.

My immediate internal reaction, ‘really Legos instead of brushed teeth, will boys always choose toys over personal hygiene?”

“William, we don’t have time for toys now…” I started.

“No Momma, these aren’t just for me to play with. I’m getting them because Dylan gets headaches on the bus,” William said.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“We have the mean bus driver today, the one who always shouts at everyone and Dylan always gets a headache when he’s our driver. So I’m going to take these Legos to play with him so he won’t get nervous or get a headache. I think it will help him get distracted by having fun,” William explained.

“Wow, William what an awesome way to show the love of God! That’s a great feet to faith idea!” I said.

Here was my child, unbrushed teeth and hair (clearly not as concerned with his personal hygiene as he was the welfare of a friend) focusing on someone else’s need and how he could meet it. I ran a quick brush thru his hair while he packed the Legoes into his book bag. While I brushed I prayed, “Lord give me eyes that see the need, not the moppy hair.”

I will never fail to stand in amazement at how God uses my boys to teach me more about Himself everyday. It’s so easy for me to get sidetracked with their messes/fights/homework/pee under the trashcan, etc. that I often take my eyes off the eternal. When it's a frustrating day with the boys and I read, ‘children are a blessing,' I think, ‘not today they’re not!’ Yet, I’ve realized that blessings don’t always come in the pretty packages we’d like.

God knew our children would teach us to know Him more in this parenting venture. He knew we'd never really 'figure out' parenting so instead He calls us to Himself in this crazy venture of raising another human being. He points us to His Word for wisdom and He teaches us about His role as our Father. One of the truest blessings of children is that they teach us to know Him more, that’s probably the real blessing! In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s the whole reason we are here. Blessing doesn’t have to look like a Johnson and Johnson commercial to be true blessing! When it does---well, that’s just icing on the cake!

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"Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble." 1 Peter 3:8