Renter Mentality

 

Twenty years ago, our neighbors bought a new house, moved out of the old house, and decided to rent their old house out to generate some income.  So now, we have a rental house beside us.  Some renters were great neighbors and some … well … were just renters.  One dad threw fireworks at his kids as they waited for the school bus.  The kids giggled, but I wasn’t too sure about that family.  The last renters stayed about seven years.  I know how long it was because I noticed when their baby boy was born.  And three years later a baby girl came along.  The dad played baseball with the little boy.  The mom was a stay-at-home mother.  The little girl stayed close to the mother as she planted flowers in the front yard and vegetables in the back yard.  Mom made a flower bed in the front yard with those Knock Out roses, and she planted a beautiful Clematis in another bed that grew beside the house on a trellis.  A birdhouse on a pole and a bird feeder made birds feel at home.  But the family built a house near his parents in Wood station, and they moved.  A new family moved in last November.  This spring, the new renters enjoyed the hard work of the previous renters, although they seldom come outside to see the flowers.  Reminds me of many people today.  They live in a free country because of the sacrifice of patriots 250 years ago.  They have salvation available because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago.  Some people accept the gift offered by Jesus, but most people neglect it.  They just don’t appreciate what Jesus did for them.  Paul reminded his young preacher boy in I Timothy 4:6, “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.”  It is a Christian’s responsibility to call attention to the things of God; to bring up spiritual discussions.  Hey, wake people up to the opportunities that they have because of what Jesus Christ has done for them. If you do, with Timothy, you will be a “good minister of Jesus Christ.”