simple honesty

There it was, the bag of freshly made granola, but something was wrong; I always get the air out of my bags, and now it had air in it, and the once-level top of the granola had a dip in it.

Someone had been eating my granola.

I looked around; Wind was in the kitchen, but he said he hadn’t eaten any. Then I asked the kids near the bridge; they hadn’t eaten any either. “Oh well”, I thought, “It’s really not that big of a deal… it's just a handful”.

I moved on and started working on the second batch that needed to be stirred. Chia came up beside me. A lot of the kids will come and go while I make granola just because they are curious about what is happening, but this time Chia mumbled something that sounded like, “P’Shelby, I’m sorry”. I asked her if she had taken some granola, and after a while, her tiny head bobbed once in the affirmative.

I was so proud of her! I don’t think that she knew that I was looking for the culprit or that I even knew some was missing, yet she still came and apologized!

Often times I am realizing that in some mission projects, you won’t see many results if any. So many times we see the failures, the fights, the disobedience, and probably we see the most failings in ourselves. In essence, we are not seeing baptisms and huge revivals. We are not seeing how God is working in the kids’ lives.

We do not see their witness at school or their witness to their families, but we know that God placed us here to do the job of raising the children as best we can. We can only try our best to do our best at the job that God has given us, and then we can take joy in the little victories that come because they are always evidence of God’s awesome power at work.

I wonder if this applies to more than just missionaries? In fact, I know it does. At school, it was easy to say, “I’m just a student and I can do the best I can, but no one will probably ever see a difference in me because of my connection to God; it’s a Christian school”. At work, it was easy to say, “I don’t need to try really hard to always do the best thing because I am the youngest, most inexperienced worker; no one will look up to me”.

It is easy to say those things, but it is so dangerous to say them. God calls us to live a life of service and uprightness for Him and He can use anything that you will give Him. He has given you a call and all He asks is that you do your level best to fulfill that call with His help. He is responsible for doing the rest.

So even if you don’t see baptisms and revivals, take joy in the small examples that God is working. Even the simple honesty of a child can show God’s work. We may not see the results of our labors, but God does, so, persevere!

Keep doing the right thing because it is right, and take God with you everywhere you go!