My Name is May!

 

“But no man can tame the tongue. It is unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so,” (James 3:8-10, NKJV)

 

Several years ago, my wife, Miriam, was invited to help at a Wedding Shower for the daughter of one of our church’s pastors. She was a close friend of the pastor’s wife and was happy to help. She worked in the kitchen preparing the food and then helped serve the guests until everyone was served and she could take a short break. She took her plate and sat at a table with a vacancy that had two ladies from our church she knew and two ladies she did not know who were from out of town and the groom’s family.

 

  The two ladies evidently were related and hadn’t seen each other for a long time and were having a good time catching up on the news from each other’s family. The older of the two ladies was a little heavy and was obviously a very outspoken person who was not afraid to give her opinion about any subject. The younger lady proceeded to tell her about a relative that had just had a baby girl. The older lady asked her what name the little girl had been given and she answered, “her name is May.” Immediately the older lady let it be known in a loud voice what she thought about that name. “May! May! Are you kidding? Who in their right mind would saddle a little baby girl with the name May? That is so old fashioned and ugly!

 

Miriam knew that the grandmother of the bride was in the other room next door and her name was May.  I am not sure exactly what Miriam’s thoughts were, but she immediately got up, walked around the table to the older lady and said, “My name is May! She then walked back around the table and sat down and resumed eating lunch. The two ladies Miriam knew looked at her with surprise and confusion. The older lady was totally speechless and couldn’t say a word. The younger lady proceeded to chastise her and say, “See, there goes your big mouth saying whatever comes into your head! You have offended this lady! What are you going to say now?

Finally, after a few moments and the older lady had still not been able to utter a word of apology or anything, Miriam got up again, walked around the table and said to her: “Gotcha!” Miriam then went to sit down and saw that the older lady was getting angry, and in fact, was getting angrier and angrier! She still hadn’t said anything but was making noises like she was about to explode! “Ah! Ahh! Ahhh!” Miriam decided that discretion was the better part of valor and got up went to the kitchen to retrieve her pocketbook and left for home. She told me nothing about this incident until the wedding.

 

We entered the church for the wedding the next week and had just finished signing the guest book when we saw and heard two big men running down the hallway. One of them was saying in a loud voice: “Where is she? Where is the Mexican? I immediately turned to Miriam and said, “What have you done now?” She replied: “I’ll tell you later.” Soon the men were upon us and the first one reached for Miriam’s hand to shake it and said, “I just want to shake your hand, you are the first person that has ever been able to shut our aunt up. The other one chimed in, “Thank you for doing what no one in our family has ever had the courage to do! (Wow, I thought to myself, this is going to be a good story!)

 

Have you ever gotten yourself in trouble by opening your mouth and inserting your foot? I am going to guess that you have, as I have also. The Bible has many admonitions about thinking before we speak, or to wait for passions or foul moods to pass instead of saying the first thing that comes into our mind. Are we saying things that build up and not tear down? Are we considering the persons feelings and the anguish they may be enduring as you give them a piece of your mind? Am I thinking only of my pain and not considering the other person’s pain? In other words, am I allowing the Holy Spirit to guide my tongue or am I allowing my carnal self to speak?

 

“So then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” (James 1:29)

“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.” (Proverbs10:19)

“Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.” (Proverbs 16:24)

“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:29-30)

 

PRAY

 

1)        Lord, help me to always think first of the effect my words will have upon those who are listening to me today.  Give me a sensitive heart and patience to wait if I am not sure of how my words will fall on others’ ears.

2)        Help me today to remember that I am an “Ambassador for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20) and my job is to represent You in all I say and do.

3)        Help me to remember the wise advice of my father who was fond of saying: “It is better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open your mouth and leave no doubt.”

 

 

 

 

Choose Wisely

“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land your dwell. But for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15, NKJV)

 

Most people know that this is the challenge of Joshua to the people of Israel, who had conquered, and were continuing to conquer the people of the land they had invaded in Canaan. We all have choices to make in life. Some are more important than others since the consequences can be great if you take one path instead of another. My father, Donald Rivette, had a choice to make in the Spring of 1944 that had great consequences.

At that time, he was a First Lieutenant and the Executive Officer of the Anti-tank Company, 26^th Infantry Regiment, First Infantry Division and had spent the previous year in that unit fighting in North Africa against the German Africa Corps which had been defeated by the combined U.S and British Armies. He had also participated in the invasion of Sicily by those same allied forces and defeated the German Army defending that island. Now his division had been moved to England to prepare for the cross-channel invasion of France at Normandy.

His division was once again, as they had at Sicily, been selected to be one of the three divisions in the first wave on D-Day, with the First Division landing on Omaha beach. One day he got a message to report to the First Division intelligence section. There he met a French Officer who offered him a chance to parachute into France and help the French underground. The G-2 had looked at his files and seen that he had taken two years of French while at the U. of Michigan. He was told that he would be out of contact with his wife and family for six months and if he were captured the US would claim they didn’t know him. That was an easy decision. He said no thank you!

Prior to joining the First Division in North Africa he had volunteered for the Airborne and had trained at Fort Benning, GA with the 502^nd Regiment of the 101^st Airborne Division. On his seventh jump there were very high winds, and he broke his leg. The Army decided that he shouldn’t jump out of airplanes anymore and when he had healed, they sent him to North Africa and the First Infantry Division. In London, he ran into one of his buddies from the 502nd Regiment in England and he said they would help get him back to the regiment and he could parachute into France with them!

He had three invitations to enter France on D-Day! All were dangerous options! Which would you have chosen? He chose to stay with his unit which he had been fighting with for the previous year and prayed that he had made the correct choice. It turned out that he did as the 502^nd Infantry took heavy casualties on D-Day and in the weeks that followed, and his anti-tank company, which was scheduled to land on Omaha Beach at noon on D-Day kept having its time pushed back due to the heavy casualties of the first waves. They ended up landing on D plus one (the day after D-day) when the beach had been secured.

What do you do when you have a tough decision to make? Do you make a list of pros and cons? Do you think about which one will be more enjoyable or beneficial? Do you look to a parent, friend, mentor, coach, pastor, or other person you trust to give you advice and counsel? Do you flip a coin? In Psalm 18 the psalmist says:

“In my distress I called upon the LORD And cried to my God; He heard my voice from His Temple, And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.” (Psalm 18:6, NKJV)

There is no better choice except to cry out to the Lord when it comes to making a tough decision. He is the One who created you. He is the One that has a plan for your life and knows the way He wants you to go. Do you remember when the prophet Elijah was running away from Jezebel’s death threat after Elijah had killed all the false prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel? (1 Kings 19:1-18) He had run away in fear, but the Lord was with him every step he took until he was exhausted and went into a cave where he cried out the Lord that he was alone against all the evil men of Israel, and he didn’t know what to do. God spoke to him there.

“Then He (God) said,  ‘Go out, and stand on the mountain of the LORD,’ And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”(a delicate whispering voice) (1 Kings 19:11-12)

Just like God came to Elijah with a still small whispering voice so He will come to you and give you the guidance you need to make the difficult and even painful decisions in life. Get alone with Him in the quiet place. Cry out to Him and “cast all your cares upon Him for He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)

 

PRAY

1.        Lord, I come to you with humility and thankfulness that You are always on duty waiting for Your children to come and spend time alone with you.

2.        Thank you, that You love me with a love that I can never understand completely but I know that I can depend on Your love throughout this life and in the one to come. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:35) 

3.        Help me never to forget that I need you every day in every situation and that I can depend on You for every decision.

 

 

 

 

    

New Book: Follow Me, Prayer Warrior

Xlibris Publishing has recently published a Book that is a collection of 84 of the blog posts from this blog. 

It is Follow Me, Prayer Warrior  by Patrick Rivette and in addition to Xlibris it is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and many other book sellers.

The price is $20.99 softcover and $3.99 for E-book. You can find more info at the site below:

https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/868784-follow-me-prayer-warrior