Summer Heat

I cannot believe that the hot weather of summer is already here - hopefully it will be the hottest here in S Texas while we are in AR. High 90's and 100 all of last week, with a shower or two to try to help it cool off ( a rain shower, not a personal shower). Everyone seems to be hunkered down in the house with a AC.

A wonderful week for Caring Hearts Ministry as there was an abundance of food both days. Friday was a big day with enough produce for at least 130 families. We are still practicing social distancing as we distribute the food. The heat of the day, even though we start early, makes the work a bit more difficult, but we have all prevailed. Friday was my day to bag - bagging sticky donuts for each family, the on to the prickly pear fruit that Mexican call tuna. Because they are prickly, I packaged 6 to a bag while wearing plastic gloves. The gloves were hot, the fruit prickly, and the plastic bags were almost impossible to open. But all was in good fun as we laughed through our trials! Some of the ladies were cleaning some of the 6 bags of onions we received - the outer layers needed to be peeled off to make sure the onion were good. It was really hot in the sun, so they improvised and used mango boxes for hats. (Almost looked like cheeseheads!)  In the middle of all the busyiness and laughter, a resident dog decided to chase a cat through the area where the ladies were working with lots of growling and snarling going on. The ladies screeched and tried to get out of the way. The frenzied animals had already flew passed me before I realized what had been going on. to add to the confusion,  the neighbor German Shepherd dog was tied up (he usually roams around us because I feed him all the donut scraps.) He is really very gentle and very carefully takes the offering from me. He was not happy, as he usually comes running when we drive in, and was almost crying because he know he was missing breakfast. As usual, the ladies brought horchata, the ever refreshing rice water drink.

                                             

                                            our wonderful crazy ladies with their box sun hats

2 more of our residents passed away this week - both on the same day. Sweet Evie Van Norman who has been fighting cancer for over a year, and Jim Kastner, who has been not well for over 5 years now. We will attend a small private service for Jim on Wednesday. I tend to forget that we are all getting older and more frail  as the years go on.

Are you prejudiced because of something that you cannot control? Your age, your gender, nationality, or race? God does not get caught up in outward appearances but looks at your hearts. Perhaps there is some good in online dating sites - folks usually communicate a bit before meeting in person. Maybe it is better to learn more about a person before committing to a relationship. In the Book of James, James warns us not to prejudge anyone because of what they look  like. To prejudge  means to have prejudice- judging unfairly. This is not a Christian attitude, Judging people based on externals is a sin. We need to be doers as well as hearers of the Word. We need to build bridges with everyone based on God's Word. Just because we heard something bad about someone we cannot allow that to prejudice us against them. How we speak to people or think about people may make us prejudge them.  My late father-in-law was perhaps the most prejudiced man that I knew. He was from a small farming community and lived there all of his life, actually passing away on the farm he loved. But he absolutely hated those of a different race, even though he never had any contact with any of them whatsoever. I doubt that he ever saw one. Most of his thinking came from others who influenced him. I often wonder what he would have thought of our beautiful tri-racial granddaughter (and ever our bi-racial great grandchildren), as he passed away before any of them were born. I like to believe that he would have loved them unconditionally as he was a gentle man at heart. There are a few ways in which to not show favoritism.  The first one is because it is consistent with the heart and character of God. It is also consistent with God"s heart to act like how we want to be treated. Remember the Golden Rule - treat others as how you want to be treated. Another reason not to be prejudiced is because it is a sin. Just breaking one commandment is the same as breaking all of them. And finally, being prejudiced affects how God judges us. Speak and Act. Say what you really believe through God's mercy. Mercy  triumphs over judgement. We cannot earn mercy, it comes from God. Aren't you glad that God has given you mercy? You can show that happiness by showing mercy to others.