I only have a few minutes to put my thoughts down, but I wanted to ask you to please continue praying fo us and our situation with our neighbor. To explain it all would take a long time, so I'll skip that. Thank you for all who have prayed, who are praying , and who will continue praying. It is really terrible to have a neighbor problem. You feel very intimidated, and that every move you make, is under their scrutiny. We'd love to resolve it all, but seeing that Mr. B is in his late 70's there is little chance of anyone changing him except the LORD JESUS.
Several years ago I read this quote on a magazine ad for Roman Meal Bread.
"You can't change a man, unless he's wearing diapers"
This is so true. I spent alot of time trying to change my husband, or things about him, but I can't. The things I tried to change weren't bad, they just bugged me. When I realized that all I was doing was bugging him about what bugged me about him, and that I was hurting us, and he wasn't going to change for me, a little bell went off. The only way any man is going to change is because he wants to change or God does it, and/or a combination of the two.
The past few weeks have been eye opening in a way. It hurts when people you think love and care about you, outright lie to you, or covertly decieve you. I'm talking about bretheren. Of course, Bob has always said that alot of the bretheren are less kind, gracious, longsuffering... of one another than lost people are of us and each other. Sadly that is true. The saying about people disappointing you is so true.
It has been hard to accept that some people I care about deeply, do not reciprocate those feelings. People I regard as close friends barely acknowledge phone calls, or emails, or letters....
And don't get me started about Pastors! No offense to any of you preachers/pastors and your wives. Any one desiring to be a pastor, preacher, missionary etc should be REQUIRED to take a thorough course in manners and etiquette; it is a sad sad day when the business man has more courtesy and respect for his collegues and customers, than a pastor, preacher et al does for the bretheren, his friends, etc.
I am not talking about true absent-mindedness. In fact, a very dear brother we know makes no bones about his memory problems, which he's had for years. He is truly afflicted, and hates it. But always apologetic and gracious.
In particular older pastors and preachers et al, with huge ministries, who travel world-wide preaching and teaching etc, seem to have mastered the art of responding to correspondence-email or snail mail, phone calls, etc. and we have the letters to prove it. Why is that? What has happened to the more recent generations?
My opinion is that somewhere along the way, we take people and fellowship for granted. The brethren and sisters who read this, who because of where God has called them, find themselves isolated from their family, church home etc....they KNOW what I am talking about. They treasure every second of fellowship they can get. They soak it up like a sponge, for the dry season they know is somewhere ahead, that might be 3 months or 3 years.
We take tomorrow for granted; but tomorrow never seems to come. We put off writing, or calling, so when we have more time, or things are less crazy, we can make a connection.
Aren't we supposed to love one another? Why is it that we write our own version of that, not in words but actions, to read, tolerate one another?
I promised to be short, and I have to get back to my pots and pans, which beckon me to cook some more.
Thanks to those who love us and pray for us.
