We were just talking about Faa the other day. I don't think I wrote much about her back in the Spring of 2013 when she first started coming to spend the weekend with us. She lives at an orphanage that sends their kids to the schools where Rusty teaches. One of the leaders of the orphanage also taught with Rusty but was preparing to leave the country to study elsewhere. He talked to Rusty about Faa coming to live with us because he was worried the orphanage was not going to be able to do much more for her.
We tried it on a trial basis at first. We didn't know if she would like being here or how it would be. Long story short she decided to stay at the orphanage. When she decided to stay at the orphanage, the directors told her she couldn't come and spend the weekends with us anymore. We had no idea why because we all had had a good time together. She became a believe while she stayed with us and was being a good influence on the other kids who come to study at our house.
So we've been missing Faa. She spent the first semester of this schoolyear in Rusty's class, but we really didn't have any interaction with her outside of that. Fast-forward to a couple of days ago, and Rusty was wondering why she didn't seek him out at school anymore. She was supposed to be working with him to prepare to be the MC at the Christmas program, but she didn't show up to work with him and didn't explain why. I guess I'm pretty creative because I could construct all kinds of reasons in my head. It's amazing how many "sinister" plots there are and how much people want to do us harm--especially when it's all in our imaginations.
On Thursday Rusty came home and told me that Faa had stopped by the office to talk to him at school. :) She had been sick and couldn't work with him to prepare for being the MC at the Christmas program. Plus she didn't really have any time off at Christmas so she couldn't come to visit us. There was no purposeful avoidance, and there was no break in the relationship. I got to visit with her at the school's open house on Friday, and she was just as talkative as ever.
During my class Thursday night I was giving out a few pieces of candy after the bingo game, and one of the students must have moved while I was giving it out. He assumed he wasn't getting a piece, and the next thing I knew he was in tears. He could have just asked about it or had his older sister ask, but he assumed I had purposefully left him out. I think jumping to conclusions hurts our hearts, and the hurt is often not necessary. It was hard to console him even with a piece of candy by this point.
I'm reminded that we need to keep our thoughts in check.We can really let our imagination and our fears get the best of us, but these things are not driven by love. Love bears up under anything and
everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every
person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures
everything without weakening (see 1 Corinthians 13:7). What we usually call love is not really love, and it's certainly not the kind of love God has for us.
Sometimes it's revealed that people are really trying to hurt us. After all we are all human so these things happen. When you open up your heart to love, it happens. Don't worry about it beforehand, but once it's revealed you have to remember that love covers a multitude of sins. Don't let it start you down a path of paranoia or hate. You can only control your own attitudes, actions, and reactions.
I want to do better with this this year. Lord, please help me get my thoughts under control.
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