Today's Devotional

 

 December 19, 2008

                                                                                                                        

Subject:  Maybe She Doesn't Have Anything Else 

Psalms 41:1 - "Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble." 

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Boy did I feel terrible.  One of my female cadets had shown up to school scantily clad for a couple of days in a row.  With temperatures hovering near freezing, I first surmised that she would go to any extreme to show off her body; a shirt with a low cut exposing her chest and wearing flip-flops confirmed my suspicion.  I finally stopped the cadet and said, "ma'am it is freezing outside, why don't you have a coat on and some warmer clothes."  That's when she hit me with a reply that gave me just enough information to realize how presumptuous we can be sometimes.  She said, "I'm waiting on Christmas because my mom said that she was going to get me some shoes because all of the ones I have now have holes in them and this is the only jacket I have."  Think I felt like a nice guy?  No way.  Trying to hide my shame, I said, well we're going to fix that tomorrow.  I guess the thought just never came to me, "maybe she didn't have anything else."

As believers I think we do that more often than we realize to people in the world.  People are put here for us to serve and show the love of Christ and often instead, we take presumptuous attitudes about how messed up they are.

In the end, I ran home to my wife and asked if she had some shoes and a coat that I could take to the cadet.  She did and with temperatures now in the 70's that girl is still wearing that coat.  I'm thankful that through her display, God has shown me what gratitude means.  

Today we should always consider the poor and needy.  We have our own needs for sure, but we have a Shepherd who attends to ours while we take of those who might not necessarily have all that we have in Him.                

Carlen