Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12
Happy New Year to all of you! I find since I have been trying to do this job as lay director, that God is still working on and molding me into who He wants me to be. Sometimes the way that he helps with that area is through my children. I want to share a story about a little of that growth that happened just a couple of weeks ago. To confess this, I have to give you a little bit of self history, not so much to inform you as to try and justify my bad actions, I think. As several of you know, I have been in the construction industry for many (20+) years. Now having said that, I am sure that conjures many different ideas and pictures to different people. The reason I share that here is to say that is a very rough industry with typically pretty rough people. I used to fit in with that crowd wholeheartedly. I was the guy who swore like a sailor, told and laughed at the nasty jokes, so on and so forth. God really changed my life on my walk, starting with my heart and I began to try to be a much different person. However, that old self is still there and occasionally comes out. Again, I think I share that to try and make myself feel better about what happened here….
Wendy (my wife), Ariana (17yo daughter) and myself were driving somewhere together and something happened that caused an instant anger to rise up in me and before I fully realized it, I had dropped the “F” bomb in front of my child, something I have NEVER done before then. She immediately turned to me and very sternly said, “no sir, it is not ok to say that word in front of me. You are not still in high school.” Of course I in turn immediately was embarrassed but also defensive (don’t we always seem to get defensive when we sin?) turned to her and said, “little girl, when you become old enough to tell me how to talk, we will have this discussion.” To which she replied, “I AM old enough and I AM telling you that that is NOT ok!” Well, at this point what could I do? I very sheepishly turned back around in my seat and remained quiet for the rest of the ride home. The scripture above (1tim 4:12) is her favorite scripture and she embodied it well that day. You see, none of us are perfect. None of us have yet “arrived” at that place where Jesus calls us to be, which is like Him. What I did do was pick myself back up (again), dust myself off (again) and get back on the correct path. I ask you all to continue to pray for me that God continues to grow and stretch me, even if it is through my children. I pray that all of you will have a very blessed, prosperous and joyous New Year! Join us on Jan 2nd our first community meeting of the New year!
Love and blessings,
Chad Oglesby
