Yesterday I was reminded why I love living in my small town. Sometimes we need something to help us remember! As I sat at Bennett's last dual swim meet of the season (undefeated!) I saw a family come in that probably had no idea how influential they were during my teen years. I moved to my small town my tenth grade year. It's a beautiful river community but more affluent than where I had lived. Rough place for a newly single mom and her three teenage kids. I believe this was the beginning of my spiritual awakening. My questioning of the evangelical belief system. The church to which we belonged had taken a hard stand that if my mother decided to file for divorce there would be no help from the church. Abuse, you see, is not specifically addressed in the scripture. Infidelity, yes. Abuse, change your behavior to change the outcome.
And yet, in our new small town, there was a group of men, Catholic by faith, who could care less what the dogmatic interpretation of scripture by any church preached. They saw an uneducated, jobless mother of teens trying her best to make life different for her children. They rented us an apartment. Brought us food. Bought us shoes (our only new items we received for school that year). They treated us with dignity, love and respect. Never asked us to attend church's, or youth group, or monitored our life choices. They saw. Need, they were able to meet the need, and they did. So Christ like.
So while I still have a friend who teases(?) me that I'm not really from ........, I smiled when I saw one of the men with his family. And then took the opportunity to thank him. And share with his family how much those kind gestures meant. And how I often think of their example and try to pay it forward. You never know how doing the right thing can change a life :)
Expressing gratitude today for:
1. People who care for their fellow man
2. My son's swim coaches who alternately challenge and encourage his development as not just a swimmer but also a fine young man
3. Daily opportunities to pay forward the many examples of blessing that I have had in my life
Oh I love this one!
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