Hoping we won't pass him by....

It seems so easy to turn away and make judgements of the homeless or people asking for money. We like to think they got a dollar from the other guy so they don't need mine. We aren't called to ignore or pass them by. If we truly believed what the Bible says, we'd be shelling out Benjamins at the corner. 100 fold reward for giving..?? How can we not want to give? What are we teaching our kids when we reach into our change bin in the car instead of our wallet? What are we teaching our kids when we search frantically for a single instead of thinking of his needs and our reward? What a teaching moment it is each time you see someone asking for a dime. Our response should be, "spare change?! how bout a dollar, how bout 2?" We tend to be so greedy and want to hold on to every cent we can get our hands on.

One of the biggest mistakes we could make as parents, one that has lifelong effects is forgetting our kids are watching when we choose to respond wrong, react wrong and express wrong attitudes toward others. Pulling up to a red light seeing a man with a sign a few lanes over, kids in the backseat..... it's time to make a decision. How do we handle this situation? Easy, ignore it, hope they don't make it to our car before the light changes and we can drive off. If the kids noticed (which they did) you have an out, the light changed. By our actions we are shaping our children's attitudes, thought processes, compassion (or lack thereof), how to respond and react, how to ignore or seek out. We could spend our years as parents with young kids selfishly looking our for ourselves, showing by example how to ignore those in need if we don't want to be bothered and then when we are the ones in need, wonder why our kids are so good at ignoring us. We need to have the foresight to teach and prepare our children for every future, whether its 10 minutes or 10 years away. When we make the choice to have children and don't make the decision to sacrifice ALL for them, we fail. We fail our children and ourselves. As we have heard "Children did not ask to be brought into this world". We chose to bring them into this world and now have a lifelong responsibility. Our success or failure with our kids will be evident to us for life. They will be what we train them to be, what we demonstrate as 'normal'.   It's time to do a 180. Instead of trying to avoid, searching for a dime or a dollar,.... seek them out. Prepare for them. But oh, we have a short week, we don't have anything to spare. Jesus didn't say give from your excess. Who doesn't have a dime or a dollar in the car. A respected person once said to me "..... but make sure you don't judge them for not giving because you never know anyone's private situation...." that's correct, we don't. But if we were honest with ourselves we would prepare and never pass a person in need without giving something. And I don't mean the person with a sign that happens to make it to your window before the light changes, I mean the person we see in public that we think could use a hello, a dollar or a sandwich. We should 'seek out' those who need our help. They could be angels, they could be sent here to test us or they could simply want a sandwich! Not only strangers but what about our own families? If we know that there is a need in our family and we ignore it............................


Who could say that we haven't been helped when we needed it?

Christmas is so full of giving and getting and accumulating things that we really don't need. We pile things on our friends and family who already have too much and forget those who really need.

Should you stop?, better not, much too busy
You're in a hurry, my how time does fly
In the distance the ringing of laughter
And in the midst of the laughter he cries

If we call ourselves Christians and ignore the needy, something is wrong. 

Everything we do when eyes are watching is worthless, it's what we do when no one is watching that truly matters. 

Giving to those who could never repay. 

Doing all our good deeds in private. 

Never a mention of what we've done. 

I think we will be a little closer to what Jesus wants when we really hurt for those hurting and cry for those crying....... and do something about it.