A simple lesson

After reading a few of the recent posts I was reminded of something that I believe the Lord would like me to share. This is for all who feel unloved or unaccepted , or simply ' not good enough'.  I have ( and to some extent still do )

experienced all of these in my life.

Sometimes the Lord teaches us the greatest truths in the simpliest situations. I guess ist's something like the simple things of God cofounding the greatest wisdom of men.

He taught me a tremendous lesson through my time working in the 2 year olds nursery at the church I was attending . The were desperately needing people to help out in during the services. It was a large church with 2 well attende services every Sunday .  Their desperation was evident when they enthusiastically welcomed me to help out during one of the services.  They felt that having a man in the room helped keep the kids a little more calmed.

Some sort of intimidation factor or something I guess. If they only knew who the one who was truly intimidated was .   Anyhow , as I walked around just watching them or helping them get a toy or something I would be smiling and friendly but the still seemed fairly intimidated by me. This was a little disturbing tome because that was certainly not my intention.

In the midst of this the Lord just put a simple thought in my mind. He simply lead me to get down on the floor  with them. I was helping one of them get a toy out of the box and I simply turned around and sat on the floor to watch them. I was sitting there only a minute or 2 when a little girl came up very shyly with a book and handed it to me. In my densness I couldn't figure out what she wanted. 

T he Lord gave me a little tap upside the head  ( not literally) and lead me to ask if she wanted me to read it too her.  She got a big smile and nodded her head in the affirmative and came over and sat on my lap so she could see the pictures while I read . Before I knew it there were several gathered around us looking at the book or just staring at me or simply leaning against me and listening as I read the book.

The little girl who brought the book to me was just quietly sitting there leaning against me and positioned herself where my arm was wrapped around her so I just gave her a little hug to let her know that I knew she was there and she gave me a big smile.  She just wanted to be acknowledged and shown a little affection. 

It seemed as though in just a few minutes the ' intimidation factor' was gone . The children began appraoching me with various request about a huge variety of things.  As the weeks went by this little girl would come up to me a lot when she firsted walked in. I could tell that her mother didn't pay a lot of attentio to her as her hair was rarely combed and she wasn't well care for as far as clealiness goes.  The leader of the nursery said that it would be better if I didn't show more ttention to one than the others.

However the Lord lead me to keep doing as I was doing still speak to with the others.  I soon began to learn many things about families of these little ones that I'm sure that their parents would not have felt comfortable with me knowing but it was just them putting confidence ( for lack of a better word ) in me. 

It also allowed to to have some 'professional' hair styling from a couplr of little girls whose parents were obviously hair stylist. Though I doubt that their parents used plastic rakes and other toys as grooming utinsels.

My point of this post is to show a simple lesson that the Lord taught a simple person ( me) in a very simple way.

He showed me several things.

1)  To communicate with someone you cannot Lord it over them . Get down on the floor with them ( figuritively speaking , of course). I am , of course not referring to getting into their sin but to simply comminicate as one who can relate to their circumstances where they are and not from a ' high horse' ( so to speak).

2)  People will respond more favorably to us when we simply try to be their friend and not their 'mentor' or

         judge.

3)   Sometimes the simpliest things ( reading a book to them or giving a little hug ) will do more to influence them than all the 'teaching '  or lecturing  that you may think they need.

  4)  Some people need a little ( and sometimes a lot ) more help and love than others .  One size does not fit all in these situations.

 The scriptures speak of " out of the mouths babes You have perfected praise " .  I learned in this class of little children more than I learned in a year of bible college and all of my other studies up to that point.   While it is good to get all the biblical education you can , it is so much better to keep the ears and hearts tuned to the lessons the Lord wants to teach through the ' simple ' things. 

After all , isn't that how He did it? He loved the ' unloveable ' , touched the ' untouchable and became a friend even to the sinner.  I read once that this claim ( that Jesus was a friend of the sinner ) was one of the accusations of the scribes and Pharisees tha Jesus did not deny.

God bless you all and know that the Lord is willing to be Lord , friend and helper to all alike in whatever situation or circumstance we find ourselves in.