What Mom Didn't Know

May I give a large round of applause to any mom who home schools her children?! For two years of my older sons education, I attempted to home school them. We had many interesting experiences, to be sure, but one I’m quite sure has probably been unmatched.

At this particular time, we were living in Florida in a double wide trailer with a nice sized wooden porch on the front. Floridians – whether true or transplant – will know what I mean when I say we deal with “creatures” down there that are either non-existent or not as prevalent in the northern parts of our great country.

Such as coral snakes, armadillos’, palmetto bugs. . . the list goes on. However, being a “transplant” I certainly hadn’t memorized the list of “endangered species.”

Therefore, one day my boys came bringing me a large tortoise. My home school antenna popped right out of my head. Why, this would be a great activity! We could look it up on the internet and write a paper on it. So, I got a box and the boys put the tortoise in it.

Some of our neighboring missionary friends came up and had a look – one of their boys even mentioned tortoise soup – a delicacy I think his family enjoyed in Africa.

Life got so busy the next few days, I felt sorry for the tortoise, so, before we even had a chance to do any research, the boys let it go.

The next morning there was a knock at the door. Opening it, I was most surprised! There stood a man in uniform – looked like a police to me. “Have you all been catching gophers?” he asked me.

“Oh, no,” I replied, my Midwestern upbringing instantly thinking of a tiny, furry, animal headed into a hole in the ground. “We haven’t caught any gophers. We did catch a turtle. You can see the box right over there. My kids were going to do home-school research on him . . . but, we felt sorry for him and let him go.”

Well, in the next few minutes I received quite an education! We had caught a “gopher tortoise.” They were an “endangered species” and we could have gotten in really big trouble! Furthermore, our neighbors had heard the comment about “tortoise soup” and thought for sure we were going to kill it!

Once he realized my innocence – or utter stupidity -- the man was very nice. I imagine he and his buddy had a good laugh when they got back to the car – and I was very thankful for his kindness and mercy! Believe me, we never caught another one!

Sometimes in our Christian walk we are tempted to be hurt by something someone says or does. “Makin’ mountains out of mole hills” seems to be some folk’s specialty! Could we learn to extend grace – show mercy – give the love of Christ. It is possible they do not even realize what they have done. (I certainly didn’t know we had captured a member of the endangered species!) And, even if they do, the God of all sees and knows all.

He desires grace in our speech, mercy in our actions, love in our lives.

Even when we knowingly turned our back on God, He KNEW it – yet, he loved us anyway! Let’s walk in His footsteps of love today.

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” I Peter 4:8