What Goes Around Comes Around

      
 
I remember as a young child meeting many “Heroes of the Faith.”  My parents were always involved in our church.  First, they were motivated lay people then they worked on staff at churches and Christian organizations.  Thus, I was right in the foreground of meeting Pastors, Missionaries, Evangelists, Christian Music Artists, etc. 
 
I loved hearing the stories of how God was working in their lives and ministries.  Like the time a Missionary in Kenya was hoping for a much-needed kitchen utensil that was not available in her tiny village.  Yet, the next day in a package that was mailed from a church in America three months earlier, there was that utensil she had prayed for just 24 hours before.  Another time we went to the Navajo Reservation to see a missionary friend and the blind Christian man who was his school teacher.  The teacher was able to tell which child needed his help by the snap they made with their fingers.
 
I recall one cold winter night in 1970.  You might wonder how I can be so sure about the date when I was only 5 years old.  It was the winter before my mother, Nancy, passed to Glory in June when she was 24.  I had received an easy bake oven for Christmas.  We had a Missionary in our morning services that Sunday.  I went home and told my mommy that I wanted to bake a cake in MY new oven for this man and take it to him after church.  She didn’t say it was silly or that it was not important.  She wanted me to pick great Christian people as heroes in my life, so we skipped the afternoon nap and made a memory that I have to this day.  When we dropped off the cake at the Pastor’s home after church that evening, you would have thought I had just brought in a cake from Carlo’s Bakery (The Cake Boss).  I’m sure I smiled so hard that my cheeks hurt for days.  But that night helped me to love servants of Christ even more.
 
Over the years I have broke bread with, labored with, traveled abroad with, listened to, sang with, and met many wonderful Christians around the world.  The excitement that I had as that child in Lubbock, Texas, has never diminished when I am around God’s people.
 
Now this past week, Pastor went to the mailbox to get the daily mix of junk mail, political ads, and coupon books.  In the mix was a letter with a South Carolina postmark addressed to Pastor and me.  I was curious as to who sent it.  I know of people there but why would I be getting a personal letter from someone from that far away? Could it be a scam?  Could it be another piece of garbage that I just needed to throw away?  When Pastor opened it, there inside was a yellow piece of construction paper with a hand-written letter from an MK (missionary kid).  You can see the letter she wrote to me in the attached picture. Also, a few months back, another MK drew me a picture of my favorite Disney princess, Belle from “Beauty & the Beast.”
 
As I sit here thinking of how these tokens of love were such a blessing to me, it sent my mind back so many years ago when I was the one trying to do something special for a Man or Woman of God.  It also caused me to evaluate my life now.  Is my life the kind of example these young people can follow?  Am I being the kind of Christian the next generation can look up to and say, “I want to be like you because you love Jesus”? 
 
Most people think of Proverbs 22:6 as a verse for parents.  “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  But as Christians, we need to be setting forth a model of Christ like love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, and faith for everyone to pursue. Can we say like Paul, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ”?
 
Remember, what goes around comes around.  Are you prepared for what is coming?