Lessons from Dad

     Growing up, my dad taught me many things. He didn't teach with words as much as leading by example.  As he did things, he would explain why he did it that way, and he was very consistent in his ways.  He never confused me by explaining his why and then changing his ways.  One of the things I learned by his example was to take care of other people's things. If he borrowed something from someone, he took care of it, and it was always clean when he returned it.  He always said if he borrowed something, it should be returned "better than when he got it."  It was a respect thing. The idea that if someone was nice enough to let you borrow from them, you should be appreciative and considerate enough to take care of it until it was returned. 

    Today, as I was reading in Acts 20 when Paul was talking, he said, "So guard yourselves and God's people... purchased with His own blood..." (v. 28), and I was reminded of my dad.  Of course, I know his lesson was a practical one pertaining to THINGS you might borrow from people. But, I feel like learning that from my dad conditioned me to read that verse today in a new way. If it's important to take care of someone else's things, like Dad said, then how much more important is it to love and care for people because they belong to someone else - God, the Creator of us all.  And any responsible person is going to take better care of something that belongs to someone else. 

    The problem is we often forget to view other people as God's. We see them as annoyances or inconveniences or lazy or different or as someone who brought trouble on themselves. We tend to look at people and say, "I love them but_____."  Fill in the blank with any number of seemingly justifiable excuses. The reality, however, is we were ALL created by God. Which means how I treat people isn't dependent on who they are or even how they treat me. It's dependent on who God is, and God is the Creator and owner (for lack of a better word) of all people.  So, thinking back to what I learned from my dad and applying it to people, shouldn't we work to leave people better off than they were before? Shouldn't we love people, care for them, and serve them so that their lives are touched and somehow better?

    Imagine if we all followed my dad's example and applied it to people! I'm not sure if he realized the connection between his ideas about taking care of people's things and his treatment of people or if he was just a nice and genuinely respectful guy. But, I've always said he had a servant's heart - meeting needs when he saw them. We could all use to be a little more like my dad. Loving people.  Caring for people - and their things! :) The world would be a much better place!