Daily lesson for December 5, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 16 verse 3:

"As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
in whom is all my delight."

Back in the late 80s and early 90s there was a Saturday Night Live skit where Dana Carvey played "The Church Lady", who was an overly-pious, judgmental, Holier-than-Thou Christian lady with a thing for pointing out everybody else's sins.  Carvey said he based the Church Lady on the uptight ladies in the church he grew up in.

Well, let me tell you about the ladies in my church. They write prayer cards to my children telling them how beautiful they are and how much joy their singing brings them. They sew dresses for little girls in Haiti. They laugh and dance with homeless men right in the center of the soup kitchen floor. They crochet prayer shawls for the bereaved and hurting -- and taking their names from their crochet hooks call themselves the "Happy Hookers". They throw parties for teenage parents. They bring communion -- to the pastor! They weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. They care for widows and orphans. They care for the less fortunate. They talk about it, they think it through, and then do something about it. They welcome strangers and Aggies.  They sing with a smile. They come early, they stay late; they do it without complaining. They take poinsettias to shut-ins and then take the shut-in out on joy rides. They forgive and ask for forgiveness. They show up with casseroles, and pies, and cards; and they keep showing up. They don't just read the Bible, but they study, and preach, and live it. They pray. They serve. They love.

They are an absolute blessing to me, my family, and to this world. And so are the men.

And that makes me think Dana Carvey was in the wrong church.