It was April, fourteen years ago. The bright, clear, expansive, storybook blue sky and freshly cut, neon-green grass instilled wonder in my toddler twin grandsons.
I sat in my porch swing on this glorious day soaking up the cherubic scene unfolding in front of me and heard repeatedly, like a song’s refrain, “atch me, atch me gandpa!”
We “watched” as they vigorously pumped their chubby arms in prep mode before gleefully jumping down from the four inch flower bed stone border, landing with their chunky, dimpled legs on the grass carpet, oh, so proud of themselves!
We clapped, oohed and aahed, and “atched” on repeat. As grandparents, we gave them our utmost attention and did not grow impatient with their antics or minimize their accomplishments!
This April, the grandchildren are grown. The boys are busy with school, friends, baseball and golf. However, in my mind, I still hear their cries of joy mixed with the bird songs of spring. I sit in silence remembering and thinking.
Am I like a toddler, demanding an audience, needing praise and adoration for my “good” works? Do I act like the Pharisees in the New Testament whose righteousness was all for adulation, praise, and prestige? Am I insistantly chanting, “watch me, watch me?!”
God, I hope not!!!!!
Do you feel slighted if you don’t have a responsive, appreciative audience?
And here is another parable that he (Jesus) told. It was aimed at those who were sure of their goodness and looked down on everyone else. Two men went up to the synagogue to pray….The Pharisee stood up and prayed like this: “I thank thee O God that I’m not like the rest of men, greedy, dishonest, adulterous, or for that matter, like that tax gatherer. I fast twice a week and I pay tithes on all that I get”…..Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.