how would you like to be angel for others?

  "...the trouble with troublesome people is that they often have much to teach to those they trouble. Love 'em all! Fortunately, they're no trouble at all, some even go away, once your lessons are learned."


I have been awake since 3 am this morning. Usually, I can get myself back to sleep, but this morning, I was thinking about my to grandmas. They were as different as the North and South Poles. My paternal grandma was a saint, to me and to many other people. She was always there with a kind word and an offer of help and compassion. It was very rare to see her lose her temper. She taught me so much about love and empathy. When she died just two months shy of her 100th birthday, the whole town rallied around her with nothing but words of love.

My maternal grandmother was the opposite. She was spiteful, bitter and vengeful. Although she had five children, I never heard too much about the other four, only that two died when in their early 40's and the others...? When she passed away at age 73, the only one to attend her funeral was the minister.

I tried to picture myself as my maternal grandmother. Her anger porbably just fueled itself. "Nobody cares about me, nobosy visits me..." on and on her letters to us went. She had nothing to do, nothing to live for and no one to come visit. She wa sin California and we, in Minnesota. Too far away for much more than a long distance phone call once or twice a month. My paternal grandma's letters were full of activities she was busy in, meetings she attended, functions she oversaw, in all, I looked forward top her notes and looked forward to returning her greetings.
My other grandma, not so much.
What should this teach us? Perhaps that by reaching out to another with love, we are given love a hundredfold. But to live a life in bitterness just leads to agony. You reap what you sow.

2 Corinthians 9:6  Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

Actualy variations of this quote can be found in several places in the Bible. And it is true--you get what you give.   Job 4:8  As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.

Hosea 10:13
But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors...

There may be times when we just don't feel charitable. As I said in a previous post, even I am guilty of the old whine, "why do I have to do this?"  It can be said in several ways: "why do I (emphasis on me) have to do this?" or "why do I HAVE to do this?" or "why do I have to do THIS?" Any way you say it...the responsibility falls back to you. 

So...why DO you have to do this? Actually, you don't HAVE to do anything. You can just go your own merry little way. You can be as nice or as nasty as you want to be. You can be someone's angel or you can be the dervish in their life. You can be the one who takes the yoke and helps them to carry it or you can be the millstone around their neck. It's all up to you.  Personally, I am a big believer in "what comes around, goes around." And, I like to help. I like to know that if even just one person's pain is lessened by my being there...then so be it.

There was a news article yesterday that reported a three year old child was falling out a window, three stories up. He was saved by a couple who just happened to be right under him, carrying out an old mattress from their apartment. Thus, by placing the mattress under the window, they saved him because he landed on a soft cushion rather than the cold hard cement. Oh...now here's the "goosebump" part: For some reason, they were stuck in an elevator for 30 minutes with said mattress....which put them EXACTLY where they needed to be when they were needed!

Angels? Yeah....they were, in a way. Or, maybe they were just in the right place at the right time...there when needed.

God does use us all in this regard--there in the right place at the right time. So, when you say "why do I HAVE to do this?"....maybe what you might be doing is turning down that chance to be an angel for someone else. You just never know, so why doubt or question it?

Go on, you know you want to do this! And don't do it just to be remembered at your funeral (in either a nice or nasty way!) Just do it, because...it's what Jesus would do!