Breaking the Borrowing

Have you ever borrowed something because you didn't want to buy it and then break what you borrowed so you just ended up buying it anyway?

It is strange how you feel when you break something you own yourself and when you break something you have on loan from someone else.

I would have been upset had we just bought it and broke it but some how it was worse that it belonged to someone else who took the risk to lend it to you.

That is the risk isn't it when you loan something out that it might not come back in the same shape as when it went out.

When I let someone borrow some thing of mine I do expect them to take good care of it.  To watch over it to treat it with care.  When I get something back in worse condition I think ill of that person.  I don't trust them, I think how could they borrow this and give it back in this condition?

We can almost perceive that if they treat my stuff like that - then they must view me that way?

Okay maybe not.  Sometimes people don't think they just use something not considering how it looked when they got it.

My daughter at the age of 4 was allowed to wear someone else's outfit.  It was a special kind of outfit.  It was a little bit big and by the end of the evening the cuffs were muddy and the material was of such that I was afraid to clean it myself.  I ended up giving it back via a third person who said not to worry that she would explain.   I still think of that and hope she did explain and that I would have washed it, if I had known how to wash that kind of material.

The Bible says to be not a borrower or lender.  It also says to give when someone asks, in fact to give more than they ask.  Is this a contradiction?  I don't think so.

Ultimately the Biblical message is - don't lend something out to someone without being willing to actually give it to them.  If someone asks you for something they are in need of give it to them freely not expecting it back.  In this way you are giving them more than they asked for.  If they give it back to you take it back as a gift or say no it is yours.

I am not saying this is easy and I still say if I borrowed something I should give it back in better condition then it was given to me.  So if I break something that was 30 years old then I should go buy a new one as close to the original as possible. This isn't always possible, but it should be our goal.

The influences of life

I have all these thoughts rattling around in my brain that I want to get time to blog, but the days keep slipping by!  I can't believe how fast this summer has gone.

I've been thinking a lot about "Influence."  It is a theme that keeps popping up in my head and one that I plan to write more about in the future.  So much of the accounts in the Bible have to do with influence.  The influence of God, the influence of a mother, wife, husband, people in general.  Each book of the Bible could be a study of this word.  Who is influencing who in this book, chapter or verse.

As a wife, mother, friend, sister, daughter - I influence those around me.  Am I influencing them for good or for evil?  Am I influencing myself for good or evil as well?  How is God trying to influence me - change me, mold me into something He sees!

This topic of influence will come up more!

I am working on my third devotional about God and the 5 Senses - Taste.   I haven't settled on a verse yet, but it is interesting to note how much the word honey comes up when looking at our taste.  Honey is truly a wonderful creation!  Taste and see how good!  I'm excited to share what God reveals to me.

I am also in the middle of trying to read five books!  Three of them are about American Sign Language interpreting.  One is about raising global nomads.  The last one is a devotional for kids.  Thankfully a few of them I can keep almost a month since they are inter-library loan.

I also have more stories from South Africa I want to share.  Though we have been back from South Africa a year already - there are still more fun stories to share and information.  We learned a lot about HIV/AIDS - that I want to share about.  Also just world faiths and how to share with people from other faiths.