I read a story recently about a young father who was working one evening, unable to get home in time to say goodnight to his children. His wife took the children to see their father at his office before bedtime. The father sat and talked with the children for a short time and then, anxious to get back to work, he hugged them and rushed them out the door. While his wife was telling him goodbye, his little daughter found a small piece of sheet rock in the trash. She took out the sheet rock and wrote this message: “I love you even when you are mad at me”. The child evidently felt the anxiousness of her father; and to her, it appeared to be anger. Later he found the message and realized that he had failed to let his children know that he was under pressure, not upset with them. He said that he failed to let them know he loved them.

It would seem to me that we may all be a little like this dad, not just with our children, but also going about our daily lives. We brush people off because we are in a hurry. We ignore our children when they are trying to tell us something that, to them, is the most important information in the world. We are short with our spouse because we are busy with life.

This story particularly makes me think about the children in our Bible classes. We enjoy teaching those children that are eager to learn, remember the stories when we review them, and tell them to their parents with great enthusiasm. But what about the children that are not so eager to learn? What about the ones that don’t read well? What about those that have trouble remembering? Do we become frustrated or busy with the “smart kids” and forget to show that we care about the others?

Many years ago, I attended a luncheon meeting where a young woman read a story called “Letters from Teddy”. It was the story of just such a child as those we often have in our Bible classes. This was about a school teacher, but the story applies to our Bible classes as well. The child was slow, and this young teacher was impatient with him, marking the mistakes on his paper with a red pen. The boy’s mother was very sick and eventually died. He was left with a dad who was trying to be both father and mother.

The story continues with the little boy giving the teacher a half-empty bottle of perfume and a rhinestone bracelet with part of the stones missing. When the teacher opened the gifts, dabbed on some of the perfume and put on the bracelet, Teddy told her she smelled just like his mom. At that point she realized how she had failed this child. She made a commitment to do everything she could do to help him the rest of the year. The boy was successful, graduated from college, and eventually from medical school. The teacher was overcome when he wrote her and asked her to come sit where his mother would have sat at his wedding.

What a difference we can make in the lives of other people. Surely Jesus had to be patient with the disciples as He worked with them day after day for three years, teaching and training them. Ananias had to be patient with Saul as he taught him about the Lord and how wrong he had been to persecute Christians. Paul shows his patience as he teaches Timothy and Titus what they needed to do to be preachers of the gospel. The list is endless from Scripture, and all are great example for us as we live day to day as Christians teaching others and living the Christian life.

In our hurried lives, we often convey the wrong message. We text and email, and it is difficult to interpret feelings and attitudes through this type of communication. It is easy to mean one thing and convey that message in another way, one that leaves the receiver feeling hurt or even angry.

There is no way to know the good we can do if we take the time to care about the people around us. This applies to our families, our friends, our enemies, and those with whom we come in contact each day. Christians are supposed to be different, not like the world around us. We are not supposed to dress, talk, or act like the world. There is no justification for being anything but what God called us to be. May God help us to communicate only that which is good, and may we do it with love for God and His Word.

Sandra Oliver