{"id":5284,"date":"2013-01-24T01:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-01-24T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.doorposts.com\/blog\/?p=5284"},"modified":"2013-01-24T07:18:29","modified_gmt":"2013-01-24T15:18:29","slug":"reaching-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.doorposts.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/reaching-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Reaching Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cShe stretcheth out her hand to the poor,; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.\u201d (<\/em>Proverbs 31:20)<\/span><\/p>\n

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The little glass pig from Mr. Misner's. He no longer has his tape measure tongue after our six children played with him. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of my fondest memories of my mother are of times when she was serving others.<\/strong> She quietly loved, cared for, and encouraged the elderly in our church, taking them shopping, helping them clean, and just sitting down to visit with them. I remember dear, white-haired Mr. Misner. He loved my mother’s name — Ruth — <\/span>because <\/span>he loved the story of Ruth in the Bible. I would stay and keep him company while my mother took Mrs. Misner to the grocery store. He did cool things like letting me pour “tea” from a little copper tea kettle for him. And he had a glass pig with scissors in its tail and a tape measure attached to its little red tongue. I loved pulling that tongue out over and over.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Misner\u00a0loved<\/em> the Bible and he loved <\/em>Jesus, and I <\/em>loved him<\/em>. When it came time to name our third son, we named our Benjamin after Mr. Misner.<\/p>\n

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Mrs. Johanna Driesner, at 90, with our little Johanna. Mrs. Driesner must not have been nearly as old as I thought she was when I was little because this picture is twenty years later, and she still doesn't look really old<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I remember Mr. and Mrs. Krueger and Mr. and Mrs. Driesner, other older saints that mymother stretched out her hands to serve. (Our firstborn daughter was named after Mrs. Driesner.)<\/span><\/p>\n

I love the image of the virtuous woman \u201cstretching out her hand to the poor\u201d (Proverbs 31:20). The Hebrew word used here for \u201cstretch\u201d is also used to describe the spreading of a skirt, a cloud or a net; an eagle bearing her young on her wings; the unrolling of a scroll; the morning spreading upon the mountains.<\/p>\n

As my mother stretched out her hands to serve, I too fell under the refreshing shadow of those hands.\u00a0While she ministered to those older couples,\u00a0they<\/em> left their indelible imprint on me. <\/em>What a rich heritage my mother unknowingly passed on to me as she lovingly served those in need around her.<\/span><\/p>\n