Twice-gifted boots and more to the story.

When God calls us to serve Him by serving others, we sometimes, erroneously, imagine a beautiful outcome of our sacrificial acts. Maybe we imagine these outcomes because we are too heavily influenced by Disney’s storybook endings or Marvel’s comic book heroism. Whatever the reason, by designing our own notion of what the outcome should be from our service we set ourselves up for disappointment and even disillusionment.

Let’s be clear, serving others doesn’t come with a neat-and-tidy storybook ending.

Serving others in need isn’t pretty or glamorous. Serving others can leave you scarred. (See what a friend wrote about this over at My Sister’s Jar.)

Answering God’s call to serve others can be downright dangerous and can send heart-wrenching ripple effects through an entire family or community. (Read Pastor Saeed’s letter to his daughter.)

Serving God by investing our time, energy, and money (which all belong to our God anyway) requires that we relinquish the right to know the rest of the story. This fact can be a good thing because even if we do know the outcome, we might not approve.

My post last week entitled Compassionate Wisdom: Training my children to serve others details the account of how my 14-year-old son served someone by giving away his socks and waterproof hiking boots right off his feet to a young, homeless man who was in dire need.

Ones just like these with the heel notch for better grip

My son listened to God’s call to serve another and responded promptly.

Later that same day, Josiah and I processed what God had done. I cautioned him against assuming his gift to this stranger would result in good as the world defines it. For example, I explained, it was entirely possible that this young man might sell the boots for cash to buy drugs. I wanted my son to grasp the truth that our role is to obey God’s call and relinquish any rights to the outcome of our service.

Ah, but sometimes… sometimes… we get to see a glimpse of the good that comes and how sweet it is.

God did something special this week and graciously allowed His servant Josiah to know what happened after he sacrificed his own socks and boots.

This week, as we made our way to care for our chickens, we stopped to deliver six homemade meals to the homeless we had gotten to know on our route. We found Hector and (providentially) 5 other homeless folks with him under a shade tree.

Josiah and I got out of the van to walk over to the group, but I could barely keep up with him. His strides were unusually bigger and I knew he was eager to see if Nicholas still had on the hiking boots that once were his.

When we arrived at the group, the look on Josiah’s face displayed disappointment. Nicholas was not one of the 6 homeless under that tree, but his disappointment didn’t last long.

Earl, one of the men who was present last week when Josiah gave away his socks and boots, enthusiastically greeted Josiah and told my son that Nicholas wasn’t with them because he got a job at the car wash. Earl shared that Nicholas commented that he knew it was because he had good, solid, waterproof boots!

Exhale joy!

On this particular day, by God’s providence, a young teen who is new in his journey of walking by faith not by sight, was granted a glimpse into the way God used his obedience. The twice-gifted boots have a new piece to their story and my precious first-born has a stone of remembrance as to God’s hand of grace and mercy toward him and toward those he is called to serve.

Yes, serving others can be messy, frightening, time consuming, and even scarring.

Thankfully, answering God’s call and sacrificially serving others can also be faith bolstering.

All good in the hands of our Sovereign God.

Seeds of Faith
“…for we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7

Copyright © 2014 Deborah Rice, PeaPodFamilyPress

A Blessing Party for my newly-turned teenage son

Reveling today in the events of my oldest turning 13.

Without an earthly father, I am always seeking our Heavenly Father’s wisdom on how to help my sons gain a vision for godly manhood.

This led me to host a blessing party for Josiah.

I invited seven men from church, plus my dad, also known as Gramps. These are all men who my son knows well and have either expressed an interest in coming alongside of him, or someone who my Dear Son #1 has admired for specific reasons.

I sent a save-the-date invitation to these men 3 months early and bless their hearts, they did!

There is no way that I can fully describe the blessing that the evening was to my son and to me.

One of the men opened in prayer.

Then, I read a letter to Dear Son #1 that included how I came to choose his name (he’s heard the story a hundred times before, but it is good to record it for the future). I also read to him how I’ve seen him grow into a courageous young man – serving, stepping out of his comfort zone when it was the right thing to do, and listing other specific examples.

Next, the men read their letters to him, too – describing the angst of their teen years, as well as what they see God doing in his life and sharing specific passages of Scripture as a blessing.

These letters are now in my son’s keepsake box and will be something he can review over the years.

Two men decided not to read their letter aloud, which is fine. One of them was my Dad — my son’s Gramps. I knew why. At 82, Dad cries easily and I know he was afraid he would totally lose it!

Of course, crying is okay for a man, as one of the other men proved when he read his letter aloud.

During the more serious segment of the blessing party and the reading of the men’s letters, my precious little-boy-turned-teenager, on the cusp of becoming a man, who is typically uncomfortable in the limelight, soaked up the affirmation, exhortation, and challenges from each letter. I was impressed with his poise.

Our pastor ended the first-half of the evening with prayer, while the men encircled J.T. and laid hands on him. I wonder how he felt with all those strong hands tangibly telling him, “We’re here for ya, bud!”

I am so thankful for my friend Isabelle who offered to come and help me for the evening. I love throwing parties, but I’m a lousy hostess.

Napkins? Uh, sure. I should probably get those out now, right?

Utensils? OH good point. Those would be better than fingers!

Isabelle was also extremely helpful with my daughters. Everyone should have a good friend like her!

With the serious part of the evening so nicely wrapped-up, the men moved on to the exciting part of the evening: Junk Food and a Blow Dart game. Yes, that’s right BLOW DARTS!

Danger! Competition! Manly! Three exceedingly important elements for any game to be worth playing!

We ended the evening with a group photo – with one thankful momma, tears in her eyes – behind the camera.

Thank you, Almighty GOD, for this evening and teaching my children that You are their Perfect Heavenly Father. Thank you, men, for taking time out of an already packed schedule to bless Dear Son #1, and thank you Isabelle, for being my faithful friend!

SEED OF FAITH
Psalm 68:5, “A Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in His holy habitation.”