God's Shoebox

2 Timothy 2:15

English Standard Version (ESV)

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,[a] a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Isaiah 50:4

New International Reader's Version (NIRV)

4 The Lord and King has taught me what to say.

    He has taught me how to help those who are tired.

He wakes me up every morning.

    He makes me want to listen like a good student.

On New Year's day my mother gave me my own shoebox of papers she had saved from my childhood.  I felt loved and a little surprised.  I didn't know she had kept anything from my childhood, beyond my beloved "Black Beauty" book and an early zipper-closed Bible.  I wasn't her first nor her last child, coming along at a time when she already had delivered her quiver full.  So the shoe box was a wonder!  I found birth announcements which should prove once and for all, in spite of what my brother said, I wasn't adopted.  There was my infant dedication certificate along with Sunday School promotion slips and early report cards from when I was young enough that letter grades weren't given.  I learned that some things never change.  What I struggled with in Kindergarten, I still struggle with now: I'm shy and have terrible handwriting.  I still like to read and am okay with math.  (I do feel, however, that it was generous to grade me Satisfactory in music skills.)  I respond well to encouragement and am a good worker.  (Did my teacher know then how easily I would slip into laziness without encouragement?)  As my God continues to teach me, I pray that I will continue to listen as a good student should.  I'd like to think He's keeping a shoebox for me too.

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  As I write I'm wondering just how much stuff Mom kept for my other siblings.  Are their boxes bigger than mine?  Sigh.  It's probably better that she handed me my box when I was alone with her.  Yes, some things never change.