‘Moccasin Wearing’

8/21/2018

I Was Thinking…

Earlier in life I sarcastically rolled my eyes at the popular bumper sticker of years ago that read “Ask Me About My Grand Children”. There was a day when someone would begin to tell a ‘grandchild story’ when I would take a deep breath and pray for my ‘Pastoral Patience’ to kick in not really desiring to hear such a story.

However, I have seen the light. I now see grandchildren from a completely different point of view. I now understand why grandparents are giddy with beaming love and pride. I now ‘get it’ because I, for the past nine years, have been a grandparent. There is something really special about a grandchild…especially when it is your very own grandchild. It is one of those relationships and emotions in life that are difficult to comprehend until you have the experience personally.

By the time you read this Sharon and I hope to have had the privilege of greeting our fifth grandchild. Abigail Louise has been teasing us for several weeks and the doc says it’s time to help her find her way into the loving arms of her mother, father, brother, uncles, aunts, grandparents, great-grandparents and others. We are over-the-top excited. Look out Piedmont Hospital here come the Walton’s and the Johnson’s…ready or not.

Reflecting on our growing experience that began with ‘rolling our eyes’ over gushy grandparents to becoming gushy grandparents that now have a completely different perspective, I am reminded of how this is true of a lot of things in life.

I didn’t understand many of the decisions my parents made until I became a parent. I had no clue the burden of being a Pastoral leader, responsible for others spiritual health, until I became a Pastor. I was totally uniformed as to the role of a District Superintendent, often critical of my DS’s, until I have been asked to serve our Lord in this role.

One Native American proverb says, “Don’t pass judgment on another person until you have walked a mile in their moccasins.” It is true! Until we walk in another’s shoes…until we deeply and fully understand their life and their motivations, their sorrows and joys, their wounds and gifts, until we truly KNOW THEM, our judgment literally bounces off of them and reflects back on us. Our judgment says more about us than it could begin to say about another.

So thanks for letting me share about a new granddaughter. Abigail Louise Johnson, welcome to this world. Welcome to the loving arms of family, extended family and friends. You will never lack in being loved. May God bless your life and use you in helping this ole world to become a better place…a place where people truly strive to walk in each other’s moccasins before they judge.

Shady and Pop love you very much Abilou!

Always Thinking…