I have always loved to read and study about the Amish peoples.
If I were not a true Southern Baptist, I believe I would convert to the Old Order Amish religion. I so appreciate their peaceful, calm tranquility in the ways of working and doing for others.
I believe we could all learn from these serene people. The work ethic is so ingrained into them that they rise in the early-morning hours to begin their workdays and end with the dark to stop the laboring.
The most noteworthy attribute of the Amish is their desire to care for their own. Not just when someone is in need due to a death or sickness, but that essential desire is carried out in the everyday lives. They have no health or homeowner’s insurance. If they have to spend time in a health care unit, the church assemblies pool their money and help them pay for the bills. If their house or barn burns, the churchgoers again provide the provisions and labor to rebuild so that the one in the adversity is blessed by the hearts of the people. They share their garden’s abundance with neighbors and friends with the joy of giving.
How much better would our lives flow if we could in our hearts share our abundance with our people in need?
I have seen mothers in grocery stores telling a small child that they cannot afford the chocolate bar they are wanting, or have to put back some of her groceries because her money just would not stretch far enough to pay for all the provisions she had gathered. The look on the child’s face is overwhelming as we watch this play out. Could we not just offer to add that candy bar or add that can of vegetables to our total?
My very best friend has a heart for people to the point that I have sometimes chastised her for so freely giving.
One Christmas season they were in a toy store and a lady behind them was trying to pay for a toy her child wanted for Christmas, but due to the surgeries from which the child was recovering, money was just too meager. As my friend listened, her heart was so touched she turned and offered to buy the toy for the child and received one of the biggest blessings she had ever welcomed.
She once picked up a woman walking in bad weather with a child to get to a bus station in order to get home. No, she did not know the woman, but her mother’s heart knew that mother’s heart, so she carried her to the terminal and gave her all the slight tad of money she had her in wallet.
Oh! To have a heart like that!
We don’t have to be Amish or Baptist or any other faith to have this open-handed heart and desire to help those who struggle. Most of us are blessed beyond measure. Not necessarily with wealth, but by some means to help those who are at some time in their lives in need. It might be just a big hug or a kind word. It does not always have to be monetary, but there is someone, somewhere who needs you and your support just waiting for your generosity.
This is a recipe that you can play with until you get it just right for you: Cabbage Corn Slow.
2 T. honey (or to your taste)
2 T. olive oil
5 T. lemon juice
Salt and pepper
!/4 small shredded cabbage
1 sliced bell pepper
1 cup of corn niblets
Mix honey, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and pour over cabbage, bell pepper and corn. Toss and chill.
