Selfless Saints

The church gets a bad rap in today's culture.

You often hear the word hypocrite when you mention church at all.

Yes it is full of a bunch of hypocrites.

I am most likely the biggest one of all.

I am a sinner saved by glorious grace.  Although God has redeemed me, I can still be a hot mess some days.  I lose my temper.  I lash out at my husband, children and friends.  I make selfish choices.  I lack faith. I lie.  I over eat.  I shop to make myself feel better.  The list goes on....sadly.....on and on.

But Jesus saved me through His death on the cross.

So....church is made up of other people just like me.  People who blow it when we should know better. 

But this blog post is to honor and esteem some sweet people in my church family. 

I want you all to catch a glimpse of a group of hypocrites humbly serving one of their own.

It is easy to call these folks my family.  They love us, pray for us, minister to us, rally around us, encourage us, and bear our burdens.

I mentioned a few posts back that this was a BIG year of change for us regarding our daughter, Caroline. 

Since she is in the youth group she attends regular church service with us now.

This has hugely changed our time in worship....especially for my husband.

Instead of singing in the choir, he would pull a few chairs out and sit with Caroline in the back of the sanctuary. Once I would finish singing I would come join them.  We would then spend the next 45 minutes trying to keep her quiet and occupied all while trying to soak up what we could of the message.

One Sunday was decent.  The others were tolerable at best.

She would yell out and try to distract on purpose.
She would kick her legs in her wheelchair stroller just to be belligerent.

We were trying our best to train her to sit quietly through the entire service.   Now she can totally do this.  She just doesn't want to.  Handicapped children are bright and can be highly manipulative.  Just ask the parents of these wonderful kids.  Some of them cannot help it....but my girl can.

She was using this time in service to be disruptive so we would be forced to take her out.

As I fretted and worried and dreaded the arrival of each Sunday God was working this from another angle.

He laid it on the hearts of a Sunday school class to help us out.  This class is made up of young grandparents and empty- nesters.  The teachers of this class approached me and Shep about setting up a rotation and allowing Caroline to sit with a different member of their class each week in service.

I was (and still am) overcome. 

How completely kind and selfless for people well past the kid phase to feel led to help out with our special kid.

Yesterday this officially took place for the first time. 

Shep was able to sing in the choir again.

I looked out from singing on worship team and my heart wanted to burst at the sight.  My Caroline was sitting next to her new friend and grinning from ear to ear.

Shep and I then were able to sit together and listen to the entire sermon without distraction.

I just laid my head on his shoulder and appreciated the simplicity of being able to sit by my man again without worry.  Someone else was officially on call.  God had stepped in and given us the day off.

This is church family.

We may be hypocrites who mess up but there are still moments that we shine with the brilliance of God's grace. 

(May I add that Caroline never made a peep during the entire service.  No kicking of her legs and no yelling out.  She just sat happily next to her new friend and listened like a big girl.)