A Heart Checkup. . .

So the other day after I had been up for a while, I had a mental list of what I was going to do, and then. . .I got a phone call.

I answered the call, and a Thai friend said that some people needed help.  She said that two people needed a place to stay for two weeks.  Hmmm, we were to leave for America in two weeks.  So, I trashed my mental To-do list, and Bill and I went to meet with her to find out more.

She explained that there was a Thai mother and daughter that were going through a crisis, and they needed a place to stay.  My immediate thought as we sat and talked with our friend was, ‘What would the Lord want us to do?’  As soon as I thought it, I knew the answer.  Of course the Lord would want us to open our home to them.

I looked to Bill and our eyes met, and I knew that we were both thinking the same thing.  I turned to our friend and told her that we would be happy to welcome the mother and daughter into our home.  Our friend explained that they only needed a place to stay for 3 days, and that she had arranged for another place about an hour away for them to stay after that.

We asked when they would be arriving at our home, and she said that she would bring them by our house around 10:00 pm.

So we got things ready at home; cleaned, prepared beds and put out towels to welcome them.  At 7:15 our doorbell rang.  (Our ‘doorbell’ is mounted to our gate outside.)  Bill went out to see who it was, and then he called to me.  I had been upstairs, and hurried outside.  I was surprised to see 8 to 10 people standing at our gate.  I scanned the faces from left to right looking for a clue as to who they were; as I reached the last face I saw that it was our friend.  I quickly, said hello in Thai and invited them in.  (I was thinking, ‘Wow, they are early’ and ‘Who are all of these other people?’.)  No one moved, so I asked what was going on.

Our friend explained that the situation had changed and they no longer needed to stay with us, but that they all came in person to thank us for offering to let the mother and daughter stay with us.  I was stunned!

How many times over the years had someone changed their mind, and I had gotten a text or a quick call to say ‘Sorry’ and that was it.

Here all of these people had come in person, to say thank you.  Wow!

Our day had turned out so differently from what we had planned, and yet I was grateful for the heart checkup that I felt I had received.  I know the Lord knows our hearts, but it is good for us to have spontaneous opportunities to really live out our faith and for us to check our hearts. 

Thank you Lord, for giving us opportunities to have heart checkup’s, to share Your love and to encourage our faith walk.  Thank you Lord, for occasions where You give us chances to re-evaluate our priorities and to do the right thing.

I pray that each of us would look to the Lord, when He puts a heart checkup in our path.  I pray that we would honor and glorify our Lord and Savior with our response, putting aside our plans for His plans.  Putting aside our hearts to show His heart.  And I pray that we would always say “Yes”, even before we know the question, when the Lord asks us to do something.

Deuteronomy 8:2 - And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart. . .

Deuteronomy 13:3 - . . .For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Blessings,

April