The Mattress

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  (James 1:22-24 NLT)

About two weeks ago while driving home, the kids and I noticed that someone had lost a mattress and it was lying in a corn field along the road.  I don't know if it was intentional or unintentional, but I really figured someone would come along soon and pick it up.  Because unless you intentionally meant for it to fly out of your truck or trailer and land there in the field, I would think you would miss a mattress.

At least a week went by when day after day, we passed and there was the mattress, leaning up against some strong, tall cornstalks.  What an eyesore.  What is going to happen to it?   So the other day, Jay, the kids and I are coming home down that same road where the mattress had been in the field.  We get past that spot and someone commented that the mattress was gone.  Madolyn pipes up and says, "Yeah, it's not there, but someone threw it in the creek down the road."  And sure enough as we went down the road a little ways, there was the mattress...although not as visible from the road, you could still see it.  Ugh.

I can't remember verbatim how the conversation goes (which I know is amazing to some people, ha) but we were talking about why someone would do that, just move it from one place to another, and why wouldn't someone just pick it up and haul it to an appropriate place.  You know how kids are, one question after another, and Madolyn is asking where a person would take it if they did pick it up.  We're giving her the options of a dumpster or even burning it in a trash pile, etc.  We keep talking about this "someone" and what they should do...and then she says it, "Well, why don't you guys pick it up then?"

Jay and I just turned to each other in the car.  She was right.  Why didn't we just get the truck and go get the mattress and burn it or take it to a dumpster somewhere?  Obviously the person who owned the mattress wasn't coming back to get it.  Mercy, you can always count on kids to call you out on this stuff, can't you?  We preach and preach and tell them to do right, make good choices, be the better person, turn the cheek, do what you can to help someone else, don't litter, pick up trash when you see it...ah-ha.  I mean, what do you say to that?  It's one of many instances where my kids catch me up.  Like telling them not to break the laws, and then Lane points out that I'm speeding.  You know it's the I-can-bend-the-rules-but-you-can't way of parenting. 

This instance reminds me of the verse mentioned above.  We can't just read our bibles and devotionals and then not apply it in our lives.  It is not how it's supposed to work.  In all aspects of life, not just parenting, I can't say one thing and do another.  It is the very thing that non-believers are watching for.  We know one of the most popular excuses to not go to church is that a church is full of hypocrites.  And most of the time, that is true...but that is also the very place where we, the hypocrites, should be, trying to do better, asking for forgiveness, learning how to change. 

There are many reasons I'm thankful for my children.  They remind me on a daily basis of the simple things.  Their prayers are so perfect and precise, down to the point.   They call me out when I want to take the easy road and let something pass.  (And they drive me nuts.)  But many days, their words are just what I need to stop and practice what I preach.  So I'm guessin' that maybe this weekend Jay & I should go pick up that stupid mattress...