Saturday, May 7, 2011

Define "Strange"

I have been taught that when you are studying your Bible, you should really take note if something is repeated in a passage that you are reading. When God really wants us to take something to heart, when He really has something to tell us, He repeats himself. I think that God does this in our lives as well.  I recently had the "opportunity" to learn some lessons about being a kinder person, a better witness and more patient with others.  Those lessons left me feeling like I was failing as a Christian.  In the last couple of days, however, I had the opportunity to learn another lesson, but this one was a little more fun!

I was talking to a coworker about garbage.  Yes, garbage!  As a family, we usually only have one bag of garbage and one recycle bin to put out each garbage day.  We compost and recycle everything that we can.  It's good for the environment and the added bonus is that we save money by not using as many kitchen garbage bags. His family has several full bags of garbage each week.  During the course of the conversation, my coworker laughed and said, "You're not normal!".  The funny thing was, I wasn't offended at all!  We are the family that composts, built rain barrels, has only one vehicle and watches limited television.  We go to church regularly and strive to live our lives in ways that will please God.  We really do try to not be a "typical" family. 

I like to think that we are on the right track.  People notice that we are different, but they don't seem to be offended by it.  My hope is that this will give us more opportunities to witness about Jesus.  Since our children currently attend public schools, I have often wondered if our "differentness" creates hardships for them at school.  While they do have video games, we are very selective about the games, and the amount of time, that they play.  We don't keep up with popular music and television stars, latest trends or hot styles.  Most of these things seem to draw people farther from God. My son has commented that there is a group of boys that seem to spend most of their time discussing a particular video game, and that they don't seem to want to talk about anything else.  I have asked him if he minded and he said he actually likes being different!  I was very proud of him!  Of course, when the conversation turns to cell phones, and how "all of his friends have them", he might feel differently!

Back at work the day after the garbage discussion, I was talking to a different coworker.  During the conversation, I made a comment that made her laugh and say to me, "You're just strange!  Not in a bad way, but strange!"  I figured if I had to be told that twice in two days, that maybe I needed to ponder on it and see what God might think about it.  In my previous lessons, I believe that God was showing me some things that I needed to change.  Maybe this lesson could be to show me something that I was doing right?

Acts 5:29 ~ "...We ought to obey God rather than men."

1 Corinthians 6:20 ~ "For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

Proverbs 18:1 ~ Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.

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