Simple mistakes, Big apologies

I'm not sure that this will make any sense but I just feel the need to write this down. So many times God speaks to me and I can't find the words or the time to express it for others. Other times, I don't dare to say what's on my mind because too many people would be offended or take it the wrong way. Unfortunately, that is part of the story of my life. It is so hard to articulate things without offending someone. Perhaps if we all kept in mind that very few statements are universal, we'd assume that when someone speaks, they know that what they're saying has exceptions and has to be applied with caution. Even in the Bible, somethings are universal and meant literally as they are stated, while others are meant to be considered in the context of their occurrence. God loves you. Jesus died for you. God created you for a purpose. Jesus was the Son of God who lived a sinless life on Earth. These are all universal statements. They are always true. They don't need context or careful wording. There are no exceptions to which these statements do not apply. Fortunately, I don't see anyway that what God has shown me in the last few days could offend anyone. (This is not a challenge for someone to find the offense in what I'm about to share.) :) So, here you go. I'll do my best to articulate what it is that I found so interesting. I'll begin by giving you the situations through which these stories occurred. In early May, I attended a homeschool conference in Arlington. While there I purchased almost all of the supplies that I need for the next school year. At one booth, I purchased a large amount of materials and paid cash for them. Now, several weeks later, I realized that I had never received the shipment or any contact from the company. I thought of it for several days before I finally took the time to dig out my receipt. Finally, just this week I called the company. At first the conversation was a normal customer service call with their representative trying to figure out my order. Then suddenly the lady says, "I'm so glad you have finally called, we've been praying that we'd hear from you." She explained that at the convention the young man who took my order had fillled out all the paperwork and taken my cash payment but had not gotten my name, address, or any other contact info. They new someone had made a very large cash purchase but had no idea who to send it too. They were all praying that God would prompt me to call them. I remembered that the young man had made a few errors on the order form and decided to start over on a new page. Obviously, he forgot to copy down my info at the top. She apologized and they are sending my order right away. NO BIG DEAL. Really, it's just homeschool materials and I don't need them until August. Of course, it would be bad if I never got them because it's a lot of money, but no real harm done. Last night my phone rang with an unknown number. I answered it and it was the young man who had taken my order at that convention. He explained that he had been praying that I'd call ever since he realized that my info wasn't on the form. He felt just aweful about it and hoped he hadn't caused us any inconvenience or messed up our schedule or any thing else. I assured him that it was no problem. That he hadn't caused me any issues and I hadn't even thought of it until this last week. He was so kind and so apologetic. He just wanted me to know that he took full responsibility for the error and wanted to apologize. I thanked him for his kindness and for being so polite but assured him that it was nothing to worry about. Now, last night was a long one. We were just busy all day. At 10pm, Raegan, Floyd, and I strolled into Whataburger to get some food real quick because we hadn't eaten in about 9 hours (Floyd hadn't actually eaten since the day before). For some reason, the place was packed. We placed our order and sat down to wait. We started to notice that people who came in way after us were getting their food. Just as we thought we should go ask, a gentleman came by the table looking confused. He asked what we had ordered. It became clear that he had half of our order but the rest was missing. Another server had given our food to someone with a similar order by mistake. He took our receipt and said he'd be back with our food. Of course, it took a little while because they had to re-make everything. When he returned, he had the food we ordered plus lots of other stuff. Several pies, cookies, and extra fries. He kept apologizing and asking if he could get us anything else. Not long after he walked away, he came back again to apologize. This time he gave us a gift for our next visit. Two free meals with desserts. At this point, I'm asking Floyd, "what's with people being so apologetic today?" Suddenly it hit me. As I sat there, it was as if God was speaking to me through these situations. He reminded me that many times we get frustrated or mad because someone makes an honest mistake. We blow it out of proportion, like they just committed a heinous crime or something. I admit, I'm very non-confrontational, so I'm most likely never going to say anything if someone messes up. But that doesn't mean I won't think something harsh in my mind. Also, I see plenty of people who do go irate over simple things. We always think about showing the love of Christ in our actions but I never thought about showing Christ in the way I apologize. Of course, I've thought about it for big mistakes but not simple ones. If I make a simple mistake, the way I own up to it, apologize, and try to make it right is a way of showing Christ in me. We know we're not perfect but that doesn't excuse us when we do mess up. We should take that opportunity to humble ourselves to others. These situations where someone made a simple mistake will stick out in my mind because they went out of their way to apologize and make it right. If, as Christians, we are supposed to stand out against the ways of the world, sincere apologies and ownership of our mistakes seems like a great way to stand out. Both of these men went to extremes to apologize. They made no excuses, just wanted to make things right. None of it was necessary but it certainly stood out. As I said, I'm not likely to forge it. It made me pause to wonder what had gotten into them. Isn't that what we want people to do? To pause long enough to find out what's gotten into us. Then hopefully we'll have the opportunity to share that Christ is what's gotten into us.

Great joy

While Texans always joke about the odd weather here, I think this winter is even more odd than most of us could ever expect. I call it winter loosely, as the middle son has been in sleeveless shirts, shorts, and sandals all week. I'm taking a moment now to jot down a couple of moments that have brought me great joy and touched my heart this week.I don't want to forget them, so here is the place I'll come back to look some day.
Yesterday, we had CC. The kids are all in the afternoon writing and grammar class that I teach. We had 8 students and 4 parents in the room and the temperature was high. I had not dressed for summer because it was January 31 and I hardly ever remember to check the weather forecast. By the end of class, I just wanted to escape the heat. Now, it's pretty common knowledge that I'm normally cold, so you can imagine that it was quite warm for me to be so miserable.
After class the kids and I walked to the car and this is where the moment of joy occurred. I dropped my bag in the trunk and turned toward the slight breeze in the air. It felt amazing! I stretched my hands up and said, "isn't this amazing. It feels so good." the kids quickly agreed. And then it happened. Out of nowhere, the girlchild raises both hands up in the air and begins to praise. She says, "thank you Lord for this beautiful weather..." and continued quite loudly. One of the boys yells out, "Amen" and the other joins in with a "hallelujah." at first I thought, "you silly kids" because I thought they were just kidding but just as quickly I realized they were totally serious. Immediately I thought, " why didn't I think of that?" and then, "thank you Father that they praise you so easily and unashamedly." Of course a lady that we didn't know happened to be walking to her car at just that moment, parked right next to us. The look on her face was a bit interesting. She wasn't really sure what to think.
The entire moment was a gift from God. He showed me that inspite of all my failures, my kids have learned one of the most important lessons in life. To praise Him in the small things, the everyday things; not just at church on Sunday, not just when major things happen, or prayers are answered; but when the weather is just right and the breeze is a welcomed respite after a sweaty writing class. Thank you, Father!

The second thing was just a silly conversation today. Again, it was a warm temp for February 1st. As we drove to our field trip the kids and I were discussing the weather. The girlchild was describing the fact that it's like summer during winter right now. I threw out a thought, "let's hope that this doesn't mean it will be winter during the summer." The youngest replies, "we'll call it swinter," then the girl says, "no, wummer," and I said, "bummer would be more like it." for some reason this entire conversation was so funny to all of us. I love the random silly things that we talk about. Especially because they are mixed in with some of the most meaningful conversations as we all learn to love our Lord and draw closer to Him.