Topics:<\/b> Attitudes; Children; Compassion; Example; Faith; Forgiveness; Grace; Love for Enemies; Patience<\/p>\n
References:<\/b> Matthew 18:3, 21\u201335; Mark 11:25; Luke 10:21; Romans 12:19\u201321; Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13<\/p>\n
When I went to pick up Shanna for Sunday school one week, she was crying and had blood on her dress. \u201cIt\u2019s my uncle Joe!\u201d she said. I knew that her family was \u201cgoing through changes\u201d because of Uncle Joe and his drug addiction.<\/p>\n
Shanna had particular reason to feel bitter toward her uncle. For years she had dreamed of owning a bicycle, and that Christmas a donation from a church made her dream come true. Shanna rode her shiny, new blue bike everywhere, bragged on it, polished it, and treasured it. Within a month, her uncle had sold the bike to buy drugs\u2014an ample reason to embitter a nine-year-old.<\/p>\n
Now, on this morning, there was one more reason. Uncle Joe had come home wearing a T-shirt that read, \u201cSay No to Drugs.\u201d Shanna commented, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you read your own shirt?\u201d He hit her, causing a nosebleed. The white collar and yellow lace of her Sunday dress were a mess. Nothing else was clean, and everyone else was still asleep. We went to church to wash out the bloodstain.<\/p>\n
When it came time in the service for individual prayer petitions, Shanna\u2019s voice sounded bright and clear as a trumpet: \u201cI pray for my uncle Joe. He needs your help, Lord. Please, Jesus, help my uncle.\u201d<\/p>\n
What a privilege to drink from the same chalice as Shanna.<\/p>\n
\u2014Heidi Neumark, Breathing Space<\/i> (Beacon, 2003)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Topics: Attitudes; Children; Compassion; Example; Faith; Forgiveness; Grace; Love for Enemies; Patience References: Matthew 18:3, 21\u201335; Mark 11:25; Luke 10:21; Romans 12:19\u201321; Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13 When I went to pick up Shanna for Sunday school one week, she was crying and had blood on her dress. \u201cIt\u2019s my uncle Joe!\u201d she said. I knew … Continue reading “HELPING
\n UNCLE JOE”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}