For Such A Time As This 051320 – Bethany Hoffer
To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,
Looking Ahead to Graduation Sunday!
If you or someone you love is graduating this year (5th, 8th or 12th grades, or post high) we would love for you to be a part of our virtual Graduation Sunday service on June 7! Please take a moment to fill out this short informational form. https://forms.gle/DGLmKDBGHLCbXA5H7
Forms are due no later than Sunday, May 24. Thank you! Questions about the service may directed to Bethany Hoffer or Rachel Witkovsky.
Joys and Concerns
If you have a joy or concern you would like us to share and pray about, please call, text or email it to me. If you would like it included in our Sunday Worship sharing and prayer time, please share it with me that week by Friday morning.
Thank You:
To all who call others to check in on them and share our emails and devotions.
Today’s Devotion:
Each week Bethany posts a Weekly Connect on our website youth page. Check it out. Each week includes words of encouragement and guidance, plus a series of tasks for youth to complete in order to qualify for a prize. Today’s devotion is adapted from this week’s posting. Thank you, Bethany, for your ministry to and with our youth, and thank you for sharing this devotion with us. If you wish to respond to Bethany directly, her email address is bhoffer@palmyracob.org .
Shalom,
Dennis
Scriptures:
Galatians 5:22
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience...
James 1:19
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.
Thoughts:
Do you know anyone who has a short temper? You just know that if you push them to far or say the wrong thing they will snap? I think we all know someone like this. And I think even the best of us are guilty of short tempers every once in a while.
The Greek word used in the Galatians text for patience literally translates as "long temper". It means that when faced against something frustrating, irritating, or angering a person with patience is able to keep their cool and think things through. Patience allows us to consider whether or not the issue is worth getting heated about, whether we are misunderstanding what is going on, whether someone is in need of compassion.
Another way to describe patience is being slow to become angry.
This week marks 9 weeks since schools were closed, and everything started to shut down. I can confess that I understand the need for the shutdown and I am in full support of anything we can do to help save lives and lesson the burden of our health system, but I am becoming restless. There are moments when I feel like I am losing my patience. But then I read stories of those who have suffered the virus, I speak to my friends who are nurses on the front lines, and I consider the unknown of what might happen to my unborn child if I were to get sick. And I am moved by compassion which allows me to be grateful for those who are working hard and those who are keeping me healthy. And that compassion and gratitude restore my patience, even if just for a while longer.
Prayer:
Loving God, when we start to give into our anger and frustration, remind us to search for understanding and compassion, so that we may embrace patience just a little bit longer. Amen.
Looking Ahead to Graduation Sunday!
If you or someone you love is graduating this year (5th, 8th or 12th grades, or post high) we would love for you to be a part of our virtual Graduation Sunday service on June 7! Please take a moment to fill out this short informational form. https://forms.gle/DGLmKDBGHLCbXA5H7
Forms are due no later than Sunday, May 24. Thank you! Questions about the service may directed to Bethany Hoffer or Rachel Witkovsky.
Joys and Concerns
If you have a joy or concern you would like us to share and pray about, please call, text or email it to me. If you would like it included in our Sunday Worship sharing and prayer time, please share it with me that week by Friday morning.
Thank You:
To all who call others to check in on them and share our emails and devotions.
Today’s Devotion:
Each week Bethany posts a Weekly Connect on our website youth page. Check it out. Each week includes words of encouragement and guidance, plus a series of tasks for youth to complete in order to qualify for a prize. Today’s devotion is adapted from this week’s posting. Thank you, Bethany, for your ministry to and with our youth, and thank you for sharing this devotion with us. If you wish to respond to Bethany directly, her email address is bhoffer@palmyracob.org .
Shalom,
Dennis
Scriptures:
Galatians 5:22
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience...
James 1:19
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.
Thoughts:
Do you know anyone who has a short temper? You just know that if you push them to far or say the wrong thing they will snap? I think we all know someone like this. And I think even the best of us are guilty of short tempers every once in a while.
The Greek word used in the Galatians text for patience literally translates as "long temper". It means that when faced against something frustrating, irritating, or angering a person with patience is able to keep their cool and think things through. Patience allows us to consider whether or not the issue is worth getting heated about, whether we are misunderstanding what is going on, whether someone is in need of compassion.
Another way to describe patience is being slow to become angry.
This week marks 9 weeks since schools were closed, and everything started to shut down. I can confess that I understand the need for the shutdown and I am in full support of anything we can do to help save lives and lesson the burden of our health system, but I am becoming restless. There are moments when I feel like I am losing my patience. But then I read stories of those who have suffered the virus, I speak to my friends who are nurses on the front lines, and I consider the unknown of what might happen to my unborn child if I were to get sick. And I am moved by compassion which allows me to be grateful for those who are working hard and those who are keeping me healthy. And that compassion and gratitude restore my patience, even if just for a while longer.
Prayer:
Loving God, when we start to give into our anger and frustration, remind us to search for understanding and compassion, so that we may embrace patience just a little bit longer. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment