In Deuteronomy 22, it says several times to not ignore your neighbors’ needs.  In the NASB, it uses the words, ‘pay no attention to them’.  And in the Message it says, ‘don’t look the other way’.  Oh, how many times we been tempted to make believe we didn’t see a need perhaps because we didn’t have the time to tend to it, or the money, or frankly, just didn’t care – and we looked the other way.

My face still gets red when I think as a 7 year-old child, I signed all my Valentine cards ‘form’ Dawn.  Everyone had a good laugh, but I did not see the humor.  Nonetheless, it did not spoil Valentine’s Day for me in ensuing years.  And at each age period, the day took on different meanings for me.

I am not one much for making New Year’s Resolutions.  Many years ago, I learned that I could not follow through with them, so why bother.    And then I learned the reason I couldn’t follow through with them was because I was always trying to do them under my own ‘steam’ – of my own initiative.

When my very precocious and oldest son, Geoff was not quite 3 years-old, I decided that he could understand the ‘true meaning of Christmas’.  I began by telling him ‘what if at his third birthday party everyone brought gifts with great hoopla for each other, but no one brought him a gift?’  Scowling deeply, he said, “I wouldn’t like that!”

Recently I heard Jill Briscoe tell a story whereby some children at a church in England long ago learned the first phrase of Psalm 23.  They were taught to hold up all their fingers on one hand, and to grab the end of each finger as they recited each word in the phrase – ‘the Lord is my Shepherd’.  However, when they came to the fourth word, ‘my’, they were to grab that whole finger tightly.  I recently taught this to my beautiful orphans at Barza Mica – except there are only four words in the Romanian language, “Domnul este Pastorul meu”.