I was startled by a yelp as one of our girls jumped back. We were walking down the road, the girls banging sticks they had found, until Fahsai was startled by a fish.
I was later told that the fish is called a sucker fish by locals, and because they don’t eat them, they will just throw them out on the road as they drive home. Well, we had found one that wasn’t quite dead yet, and when Fahsai had banged her stick near it, the fish moved thus causing the commotion. As we finished our walk and started back home, I couldn’t stop thinking about that fish.
It was near a small tarp shelter that a local uses as a house, so I wasn’t quite sure that it was a safe place for the girls to stop while I walked the fish down to the river. The other option was picking the fish up with my bare hands to try to chuck it as far as I could, but that didn’t seem totally safe either. I thought maybe I would just leave the fish for the sake of the girls, but my mind wouldn’t settle for that.
As we got close to the shelter again, I determined that the owner wasn’t anywhere around, so I found a bag and asked the girls for a stick. I then sent the girls around the corner and quickly ran to dump the fish in the water. Everything worked out; the girls were safe, the fish was alive, and my conscience was at peace. However, now that I think about it, a much more important lesson is coming to mind.
This last week we had camp meeting, and during one of those meetings the struggle of loving the people we minister to was brought up. Now this might seem like a completely unrelated topic, but as I was thinking about what to write today these two topics came together.
Lately I have been struggling to be patient with the kids. It is really easy to get them in trouble for things, but it is a lot harder to praise them for the right things. Another way to say that is that it is a lot easier to judge and a lot harder to love. As I thought about the fish story, I was shocked by one of my own failings. I realized that I was willing to risk embarrassment, and possible harm, just to save a fish. A fish that would have died anyway and no one would have known or cared. But yet when the girls are not coming exactly when I call, or when they are all shouting out questions at the same time, I am so quick to lose my patience.
This morning I found myself asking the question, do I love the fish more than the children? It might seem like a silly question, but that question poked at my heart. These children are each individually precious, so very precious, but sometimes it is hard to remember that. I think as Christians we can often fall into the same trap. We can easily be annoyed by the slow person in traffic or the person with tons of groceries in the checkout line and we often forget that Jesus saw them when He died. Jesus died for them just like He died for me, but do I treat them that way?
This week I am going to work on loving the children and having more patience with them and I would invite you to join me! Let’s try to remember that everyone is loved by God and that Jesus died for each and every person we see. So firstly, I am going to try to be more loving and patient, and secondly, I am going to try to look for new ways to show or tell them about Jesus. Will you join me?
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