Different Priorities

I love to read!

Not all people understand this.

My children had an AWANA event one Saturday, when we lived in PB. Carl and I volunteered to drive our children and some of their friends-two brothers and their sister- to the event. Their parents, (what makes this even more shocking is they were homeschooled), had some errands to run in LR and would be gone the whole time of the said AWANA event. I would have called this women, who I can't think of her name at the moment, my friend.

Said AWANA event was cancelled! Now I had 6 children, on a rainy Saturday, for the whole day in my house. This was before cel phones, so we couldn't call them, not that we would have. And, you know, what the heck, my children enjoyed these kids so we all went back to our house for the day.

It was in the spring. I had pulled all the clothes out of the attic and was in the process of 'what still fits', 'what needs to be given away', 'what can a younger brother or sister possible wear next year'. In addition to the piles I normally have around my house, I had even more. The children never noticed. We watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, played board games, played with the crash dummies, had a big snack, etc and the day flew by.

Said 'Can't think of her name' and her husband came at the end of the day to collect their children. When they walked into my house the first words out of her mouth were and I quote" On Monday, why don't you drop your children off at my house for awhile, so you can clean your house"

I just laughed.

I should of taken her up on it. Would she ever have known what I really did? Probably, I don't have a good poker face. I still remember thinking, Who would use a day without children to clean your house? I said " If you watch my children on Monday, I doubt I'll clean my house, I'll get my book and read all day"

She informed me in no uncertain terms that she would not watch my children for me to read. I pointed out that I hadn't asked her to watch my children in the first place. We smiled and parted ways.

Now, lest you feel the need to call the heath department on me, I have had folks say that they enjoy being in my home because it is lived in and that makes them feel comfortable.

But I do surely love to read and now most of my piles are of books

One of the blogs on my blog roll is Reading to Know. I love her book reviews and have come to trust that she and I have to same view on books so if she recommends one, I usually enjoy it too. Here are Part I and Part II of an article she wrote on Reading as a Ministry. I hadn't thought of it that way before but I do have lots of folks that come to me for suggestions of what they can read or to borrow books for beach trips (hey Monica, were they good?) or ask me what they can give as a gift to a reader.

So if Said AWANA mama ( I did just remember her name) and I had the above interaction now, I might say, Sure you can watch my children and I'll get ready for some ministry work!