Slow Learner

God clearly knows that I need repetition when learning. This week I have been focused on that 1 Samuel verse (read previous post) where it clearly states that Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Well, I must not have gotten it the first go around.

Yesterday I had the day off from preschool. I had a list a mile long to accomplish and my morning sickness kicked in right during the first stop. My last stop of the day was to go to Kyle's school to volunteer at a Christmas function. I had to be there at 2:00, but I skidded into the post office to mail something at 1:48. I figured I could still make it until I saw the line at the post office.

Oh my, it was a mile long despite all registers being open. I took my place in line and watched the clock. I finally realized that the outer two lines were moving along, but this sweet couple in the middle obviously had the line backlogged. Several postal employees were trying to help this couple. They had all their items laid out on the counter, papers flying everywhere, and they just seemed to have no clue.

Well, here comes the heart lesson. My foot started tapping as the clock inched towards 2:00. Kyle's has the type of personality that would be stressed if I said I would be there at 2:00 and I was not. He gets very nervous about issues like that. Anyway, I kept watching this poor couple. They had no clue what they were doing and really had created quite a stir at the counter. I was standing there wondering why they had not put that package together prior to the post office, or why they didn't have the supplies they needed before the post office. I was pretty frustrated with them by the time I got up to the line beside them.

As I smugly put my neatly packaged item on the counter with a smile, I glanced at that couple. The Dad caught my eye. He then said, "Sorry for the mess, our son was just sent to Iraq for the first time and we are trying to send him Christmas presents. There are specific packing rules for military overseas, and this is the first time we have mailed him something."

Oh dear... my heart literally pounded. Here I was all frustrated at these people for clogging up the post office lines when I need to be somewhere and God love these people. They just put their one and only son on a plane to who knows where to fight for my freedom. I have no idea how much my package was that I sent- I just shoved bills at the clerk and got out of there. Oh dear, once again I had to learn that heart lesson the hard way.

See, my heart is so tender to those people because I too have sons. I cannot imagine the anguish and pride in their heart that their one and only son is gone this year for Christmas to serve our Country. Their faces stuck with me all day long. I know on Christmas day as I am loving on my sweet boys I will think of these people. I know they live here somewhat locally and I wished I would have gotten their names or even their son's name. I was just to appalled at my own behavior to think straight. I am not a big tattoo fan, but perhaps I need to tattoo 1 Samuel 16:7 on my forehead-God is clearly trying to get me to understand this message this Christmas season.

"The Lord said to Samuel, Do no consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

1 Samuel 16:7

Thanks Lord, I think I have it this time:)

By the way, I was not a minute late in Kyle's eyes for the party. His class was one of the last to come in and he never noticed that I was eight minutes late:) To him, it looked like I had been serving hot chocolate the whole time!!!