The Car

Many laughed at the car as it jostled down the road creaking, groaning and seemingly in need of repair. Its windshield cracked, the outside dirty, the front headlight taped and crooked.

Yet it seemed to roll carefree down the road, not stopping to throw dirt on the stalled vehicles on the side of the road. It didn't even stare jealously at the new, clean, expensive machines roaring down the road.

No, it just kept going down the way that was needed to travel, it did stop to help some poor helpless soul, out in the cold just stumbling along, trying to find their way.

Once inside, the passenger found the car warm and quiet. Although the ride was not without bumps and turns, because of the love and the laughter felt inside the car no one seemed to notice.

No, it didn't matter if there was striving all around; if some travelers along the road seemed more interested in the condition of the stripes on the roadway or the decorations put up in someones yard along the way; what this simple little car taught me was this:
"The road will not cease to continue though you take your eyes off its course, and how much more important is the heart within the traveler than the appearance of their bumper."

"Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud."
Proverbs 16:19

Just a thought.....
Lori

"The road will not cease to continue though you take your eyes off its course, and how much more important is the heart within the traveler than the appearance of their bumper."

I think this is a good point, subtly spoken. I had a conversation with a brother the other day along the lines of how our culture has changed the way in which women and men appreciate their femininity and masculinity respectively. Biblically, women found their femininity in childbearing. If they had a husband and no child, they were sorely vexed. They had no way to stand shoulder to shoulder with other women and felt inferior.

Modern society has flipped this around and placed the emphasis on so-called 'beauty'; then they reserve the right to tell us what beautiful is. This is why many young girls starve themselves, etc. This contributes to young women wanting to disown their kids or have much less feeling towards them than in generations past. Society has taught women to be ashamed of having kids. Often kids are seen as a burden and then lack the nurturing they need to grow up properly.

What would happen if society returned once again to motherhood as the primary expression of a womans identity? Not that all marry or can have children; but as a general rule? I'm thinking now of a passage in I Thess:

(1 Thessalonians 4:3-5) For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

The world operates in a different paradigm than the regenerate. They view each other as objects upon which they may fulfill their own lusts. But this is not the mindset and disposition of a Christian. I think it may be expressed by saying men ought to be gentlemen and women out to be ladies. This is radically different than the sex object expression of male and female identity.

We have to know how to possess our vessel in sanctification and honor. Sanctification is easy to define. We are God's in a very same sense that a husband is [i]exclusively[/i] his wife's and vise versa. Honor is a word that can mean [i]precious[/i]. Our vessel (bodies) are precious and should be treated as such. To [i]profane[/i] something is to defile something that is precious. It is the root word for profanity. We should not carry ourselves as a living expression of profanity, but in sanctification to God as a precious possession of His alone.

Thank you Robert for your response.

Certainly it is of great value to recognize the important roles that God has created us to fulfill. Although I feel that motherhood is one of the greatest values of being a woman, I fear, though in times both present and past (as well as in various cultures), value is placed on the number of children (as well as the male children women have bore). Motherhood, is much more to me than my 2 children, and now 2 grandchildren; I find myself many times "mothering" those who are not my own, at times some who may even be passed their times of their own childhood. (By "mothering" I mean loving and caring for another individual in an effort to show them their value as a human as well as teaching them ways of caring for themselves and others around them with sensitivity and at times with correction.)

I have found that not many in this day have been loved and cared for unconditionally by a mother or a father. This tradegy has led to a distorted view of what a woman and a man should both do and be.

Many find "worth" in many things these days. My hope and prayer is that the "paradigm of the regenerate" will become the norm, and they will see their roles as the mothers and fathers of the outcast in this world. The ones to whom the crushed and grieving can run and find solace as they have the Comforter within; the life of Christ who reached out and touched the leper, gave the adultress hope, the blind their sight, the hungry some bread, and those who are harassed and opressed by the devil freedom!

"In that last day, that great day of the feast,Jesus stood and cried, saying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. he that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." John 7: 37,38

I see it everyday when I'm coaching football... and it's one of the very reasons why I coach.

I have spoken with several teachers in both public and Christian schools and they see so MUCH of it they are overwhelmed!!

Lori