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I attended a non-denominational church this morning. I hadn’t
visited this particular church in about a year, and the reason that I
decided to visit it this morning was that I wanted a new pen! A year
ago, when I visited this church, I got a new pen. It was in the program
so that we could write down our contact information and put it in the
offering bucket. That pen lasted for a year! A few days ago, however,
it ran out. So I decided to go to that church and get a new one.
The sermon was a Mother’s Day sermon. It focused on mentoring and passing down values to young people.
The pastor noted that Eli in the Book of Samuel had been a bad father, yet he got a second chance when he mentored Samuel.
The pastor also shared a video in which an elderly woman and her husband were sharing. The elderly woman said that she visited a young woman who had recently had a baby. Of course, everyone was paying attention to the baby, but the elderly woman took the opportunity to talk to the older brother. “I’ll bet that you are a good big brother,” she said to him. The young woman was happy that someone took the time to talk to her son.
The pastor read a story about a family in the church, as told from the perspective of the mother of the family. Her husband had died of cancer, so now she was a single parent. She needed her two daughters’ help, so, when she told her two daughters that they needed to stay and help her with the yard work rather than go bicycling with their friends, she wasn’t being mean or trying to teach them a lesson: she really needed their help! She started going to church with her daughters, the church that her husband had attended before his death, and she noticed that her attitudes were subtly changing: nothing dramatic, but she prayed and relied on God more each day. People at church came to her house and accomplished in four hours what would take her and her daughters weeks to do, and she valued that experience because it taught her two daughters the value of service.
I do not feel called to mentor anybody right now, but, if I am ever in a position to be an example to others, I hope that I do that well and teach the right values. I liked the stories today, even though there was tragedy in some of them. Why God allows a world where cancer takes the lives of those we love, I do not know. I was thinking about that topic before going to church this morning. Incidentally, the pastor also in his sermon said that each breath we take is a gift from God and we should appreciate it. The world is a tragic place, but it is good when people can find second chances, appreciate others, and teach values.
The sermon was a Mother’s Day sermon. It focused on mentoring and passing down values to young people.
The pastor noted that Eli in the Book of Samuel had been a bad father, yet he got a second chance when he mentored Samuel.
The pastor also shared a video in which an elderly woman and her husband were sharing. The elderly woman said that she visited a young woman who had recently had a baby. Of course, everyone was paying attention to the baby, but the elderly woman took the opportunity to talk to the older brother. “I’ll bet that you are a good big brother,” she said to him. The young woman was happy that someone took the time to talk to her son.
The pastor read a story about a family in the church, as told from the perspective of the mother of the family. Her husband had died of cancer, so now she was a single parent. She needed her two daughters’ help, so, when she told her two daughters that they needed to stay and help her with the yard work rather than go bicycling with their friends, she wasn’t being mean or trying to teach them a lesson: she really needed their help! She started going to church with her daughters, the church that her husband had attended before his death, and she noticed that her attitudes were subtly changing: nothing dramatic, but she prayed and relied on God more each day. People at church came to her house and accomplished in four hours what would take her and her daughters weeks to do, and she valued that experience because it taught her two daughters the value of service.
I do not feel called to mentor anybody right now, but, if I am ever in a position to be an example to others, I hope that I do that well and teach the right values. I liked the stories today, even though there was tragedy in some of them. Why God allows a world where cancer takes the lives of those we love, I do not know. I was thinking about that topic before going to church this morning. Incidentally, the pastor also in his sermon said that each breath we take is a gift from God and we should appreciate it. The world is a tragic place, but it is good when people can find second chances, appreciate others, and teach values.
