Unconditional Acceptance

Sorry if you have seen this story before circulating in various emails. I thought it was a good reminder of unconditional acceptance.

Accept one another, then just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
Romans 15:7

I am a mother of three (ages 14, 12, 3) and have recently completed my college degree.

The last class I had to take was Sociology. The teacher was absolutely inspiring with the qualities that I wish every human being had been graced with.

Her last project of the term was call "Smile". The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reactions.

I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway. So, I thought this would be a piece of cake, literally.

Soon after we were assigned the project, my husband, youngest son, and I went out to McDonald's on a crisp March morning. It was just our way of sharing some special playtime with our son.

We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away, and then even my husband did.

I did not move an inch...an overwhelming feeling of panic welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved. As I turned around I smelled a horrible "dirty body" smell, and there standing behind me were two homeless men.

As I looked down at the short gentleman, closest to me, he was "smiling". His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God's Light as he searched for acceptance. He said, "Good Day" as he counted the few coins he had been clutching.

The second man was fumbling with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally challenged and the blue eyed gentleman was his salvation. I held my tears as I stood there with them.

The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, "Coffee is all Miss" because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. he just wanted to be warm).

Then I really felt it - the compulsion was so great I almost reached out and embraced the little man with the blue eyes. I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray. I then walked around the corner to the table that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue eyed gentleman's cold hand.

He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said "thank you".

I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, "I didn't do this for you. God is here working through me to give you hope."

That day showed me the pure Light of God's sweet love.

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Matthew 25:40

"Not Me!" Mondays

Welcome back to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

God does have a since of humor :-)

I DID NOT get up at 3:40 a.m. to try and figure out which smoke/carbon monoxide detector was running low on battery. It DID NOT take me 45 minutes to figure it out only to find out that once the battery is removed the things continues to beep. Why is it those things wait until the wee hours of the morning to run low????? (This whole time, my dog was under the covers with my husband shaking like a tree in a tornado.)

I DID NOT leave said detectors on the counter with out batteries deciding to wait until the weekend to deal with them. After all that would be very irresponsible. Ok, I did leave the carbon monoxide detector running by the girls bedrooms. I guess I'm not totally irresponsible.

I DID NOT proceed to over sleep and then take my make up with me to finish getting ready at work.

I DID NOT use this situation to write a devotion, see Sundays blog.

I DID NOT have three high school swim meets to attend this week and a husband out of town along with something else scheduled for the other days/nights. I DID NOT neglect my blog for this reason. After all, all I was doing from 11:00 pm - 6:00 am was chasing beeps or sleeping.

I DID NOT drop my camera at the 3rd swim meet and watch it bounce twice on the concrete stands. My camera IS (NOT) working great and DOES NOT have to be taken to the camera shop to be repaired. I DID NOT screw up my camera right before conference/state competition.

Beeps in the night

It's 3:30 in the morning, I'm awakened by something, the dog is trembling - what's going on? Then I heard it, the stupid battery low beep from either the smoke detector or the carbon monoxide detector. Why does it wait until the middle of the night to go off? Okay, it's a little annoying but I think I can sleep through this. It beeps again, the dog is trembling even more. I though he was going to have a little puppy heart attack.

My husband gets up, takes the batteries out of the carbon monoxide detector- no more beeps. We settle back into bed, the dog is still trembling but hey I can ignore that and go back to sleep. A few minutes later...yup you guessed it...BEEP. I listened to it beep two more times and finally decided to get up.

Now I'm standing in the bathroom hold the carbon monoxide detector starring at it waiting to see if it will beep. It beeps, how is that, there are no batteries in it? With all the wisdom I could mustard up at 3:30 in the morning I shoved the thing in my dresser drawer - take that.

I walk out into the hall and BEEP, it's the smoke detector down stairs, good grief. I precede to go down stairs hauling a chair with me so I can reach the stupid thing. I unplug it, take the battery out and place the thing on the counter only to hear BEEP. Now it's the one upstairs, I go down stairs get my chair and haul it upstairs and dismantle the smoke detector and set it on the counter with it's counter part only to hear the BEEP again- it was maddening.

By now it's 4:05 am, I am not my best at that hour for problem solving - how can this thing be going off with out power? The thought had ran through my mind to put it out in the garage. I'm looking at the indicator lights on the detector and notice some writing in the same color, it said "Push to Hush". Oh man, could it really be that easy? Yup, I pushed it, it beeped (I wasn't smart enough to move the detector away from my head before I pushed it, but my hearing is coming back) and you got it - NO MORE BEEPS. Praise God.....

How many time has God tried to get our attention only to have us roll over and go back to sleep?


In 1 Samuel 3:2-10 God is trying to get Samuel's attention:

2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple ^[a] of the LORD, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the LORD called Samuel.
Samuel answered, "Here I am." 5 And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
But Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." So he went and lay down.

6 Again the LORD called, "Samuel!" And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
"My son," Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down."

7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD : The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.

8 The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.' " So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!"
Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

How do we know when God is trying to get our attention? Sometimes it's just a nagging feeling that won't go away. Sometimes He uses subtle and not so subtle situations in our lives. We need to be prepared to hear God and respond when He gets our attention, just like Samuel.

The enemy uses business to his advantage-we tend to think the busier we are the more successful we are. In reality when we keep ourselves too busy we don't take time to praise God, spend time reading/meditating on His Word or just being quite so we can hear when God is calling. It's time we prioritize our time and put God first.

What are your beeps in the night that you are trying to ignore?

Is God trying to get your attention and you're just rolling over and going back to sleep?

Are you looking for the "Push to Hush" button?

When God calls on us we need to be ready to here Him and say
"Speak, for your servant is listening."

We are never alone.

Random Pic Saturday

It's Saturday, that means time for a Random pic challenge. This week's theme is go to your 10th picture folder and choose the 5th to last pic, so here is it!

I love all the colors of fall. The picture doesn't show the true beauty of this tree. I can't wait until the leaves come back this spring.

Now head over to this mommy's blog and play along!

"Not Me!" Monday

Welcome back to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

God does have a since of humor :-)

I DID NOT go to the breakroom with a container of crackers expecting to make a glass of iced tea.

I DID NOT go to my book club with out my book.

I DID NOT make my husband turn around and drive two miles back to my car to make sure I locked it.

I DID NOT run into Walmart thinking I go get by with out a cart.

I DID NOT find a spelling error on a comment and then post another comment appoligizing for my spelling error.

You really just have to laugh at life.