GramMa's Thoughts

When I was about ten years old, I had an enemy. I didn’t know why she was my enemy, but she was. She made fun of my clothes. My clothes were generally my aunt’s dresses which my mother made over for me. I knew they weren’t as nice as the other girl’s dresses but a preacher’s daughter couldn’t have new clothes in those days. Some pastors today are the richest people in town. I don’t understand that either.

This girl, her name was Donna, would try to destroy any papers that I was working on by marking them with a big black X, and I would have to do the paper over again before it could be handed in. She tried to get the other girls against me, but, for the most part, I guess they knew her too. I always got better grades and I thought maybe that was why Donna was my enemy, but she didn’t care that much about grades so I was pretty sure that was not it.

In Sunday School one Sunday, I read: “If thine enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head”. (Romans 12-20KJ) I didn’t want heaps of coals of fire heaped on her head but I got from that verse I should be kind to her even though she was not kind to me. But how could I do that? I wondered. I realized then that I was always shooting words back at anything she said! I was as bad as she!

If I respond to her in anger, we will never have peace between us. However. if I continue to treat her with kindness and pray for her, I will find that peace will prevail. I was not a bit sure it would work like the Bible verse said, but I decided to give it a whirl anyhow. I started praying for her, Praying that she would be happy and find that friend that I had, Jesus. I treated her well too, doing little things for her and not answering when she said something nasty to me. One day she asked me if she could go with me to Sunday School! I, of course said yes.

We started going to Sunday School together regularly and she finally gave her life to Jesus. She even gave me two dresses that didn’t fit her anymore. I found that I was no longer only making peace between us, but I was making a friend. Donna and I friends? Yes, we were truly that and much more. Why don’t you give that a try if you have a person who does mean things to you. It works! and it should, because it came from God’s Holy Word. And His word is true!

Some of you younger readers probably won’t remember that song: “Make The World Go Away”, but it sure fits our world today! Last night, around midnight, My son came into my bedroom to say, “You should get up and see this, the yard is covered with ash.” Right away, I thought Mt. St. Helens was erupting again. ( I live close to Mt. St. Helens) But that wasn’t the case. The ash is from one of the forest fires in the Cascades. 1600 firefighters are trying desperately to contain them, but so far they have not had much success. Anyhow, we were told to close up our houses and stay indoors. I have noticed it is harder to breathe here today.

Then, I noticed on television that little guy over in North Korea has now tested a big, dangerous bomb. He seems to want a war with the USA. I guess that’s one of the options on our table. And we’ll still have to find plenty of money to bring Huston and Louisiana back to normal again, but now, we look at Erma, which is getting larger and heading straight for Miami. We need to pray!

There still is Isses, anxious to kill people, I can’t imagine why. And there are other Muslim extremists wanting to do the same. Lately, I’ve been hearing about a new group of people, and I use the word, people, carefully, but most of them are Americans who, I guess, want to hurt other Americans! Isn’t that something?

It sounds like the end times we will face one time or another, but it will bring on the return of Jesus, and that is good. But not really, because Jesus told us that the field is ripe unto harvest and that is for sure! There are many around us who either want to kill others and there are many who are living their own lives and don’t care about Jesus. There are still many who haven’t even heard about him. So, It is up to us to bring in the harvest, Huh, readers?