Lessons from One White Glove
When Ray and I were in Illinois at the church reunion last Sunday, each of the former ministers present participated in the worship time. The eldest of the ministers gave the sermon. He told a story about visiting his grandmother in Oklahoma as a child.
His grandmother’s church met in a theater. When he and his family went to church with her, he sat between her and his parents. He figured that might have been the best way to keep him behaving.
He spoke of his grandmother’s commitment to being dressed in the way she thought best for going to church. She always wore a hat and gloves. Don’t think she was stodgy. She was part of a great company of women at the time.
When I was growing up several years later, I saw lots of women in hats and gloves. In fact, I had my own little pair of white gloves. I imagine that most of my friends did, too. Those women believed in a proper way to do things and were committed to carrying that out.
The minister we heard last Sunday told about a time when about twenty family members were in his grandmother’s three- or four-room house. As the time for leaving for church neared, his grandmother was in a tizzy because one of her gloves was missing. Finally, someone said it was time to leave. “No one leaves this house until we find my glove,” his grandmother commanded.
The minister went on to say that through the years he had learned to loosen up about things that don’t really matter.
He’s right, but we still have a fine line of a tightrope to walk. Homeschooling mamas have to learn when to loosen up with their children and when to command that “no one leaves this house until ____________.” Each of us has to fill in that blank with a firm commitment to follow God’s commands and with a prayerful heart for His wisdom in the nitty gritty details.
Just as the Father has loved Me,
I have also loved you;
abide in My love.
If you keep My commandments,
you will abide in My love;
just as I have kept My Father’s commandments
and abide in His love.
These things I have spoken to you
so that My joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be made full.
John 15:9-11