Appropriate Behaviour!

I was thinking the other day as I was ordering a couple of new 2022 calendars, that Piper’s yearly calendar selection was always very special to her.  Since the years in our first apartment, the calendar that hung in the kitchen was always hers!  She took great pains in selecting the right one with uplifting pictures and sometimes with meaningful sayings… but mostly one’s with a scripture theme for each month.

When we moved into our new home in North Carolina I wanted to keep the tradition going for her and always tried to have “her” uplifting calendar hanging in a prominent place in the dining room where we tended to spend the majority of our time together during the day.  The kitchen was off of that room and with her condition, Piper did not cook anymore, nor spend much time in there.

But the dining room was in the center of the house and had a nice view of the living room and of our front yard and neighborhood beyond and in the other direction, another gorgeous view of our spacious backyard through the sliding glass door that led to the deck, the patio and the lawn and garden.  And even though I had set up a study/office in one of the front bedrooms, I tended to pay bills, do my daily Bible Study, and keep up with all of her medical paperwork, while sitting at the table in the dining room due to its easy access for Piper and her custom wheelchair.

When I bought the house here in Oklahoma, I automatically felt as if the kitchen was hers and set up everything in the room according to the way she herself would have done it!  Which also meant that the calendar would have to be selected according to her tastes. 

I noticed after a few weeks, that the original 2022 calendar that I had purchased for the kitchen… well… it just didn’t seem to be the right one!  I don’t know if I could explain it… but when I looked at it… it just didn’t shout “PIPER!”  So, as I sat at my computer last week, looking through my favorite calendar website, I suddenly had a wave of peace with a few hints of Piper’s sweet laugh coming from somewhere in the recesses of my heart, when I came upon the Lang “Heart and Home” calendar for this New Year!  I had to smile and could almost hear her say “That’s it, Jim!”

So, when I brought in the large flat package that the postman left on our front porch on Saturday, I’m not sure who was more excited about it… Fiver or me!  For some reason, he always gets very excited when I bring a package in the front door!  And when I unwrapped the calendar, and exchanged it on the wall with the first one that I’d bought … I actually think the dog nodded his head to confirm that it WAS the RIGHT one!

And you know?  He was right!  It not only was the RIGHT one, but it was the APPROPRIATE one for the kitchen… and maybe more importantly to me… it was the APPROPRIATE one to best honor the essence of Piper’s memory.  Now, when I look daily upon the calendar to check for scheduled events, my heart gives a happy sigh as I hear her sweet voice from somewhere deep inside of me saying “It’s me, Jim!”

I was reminded of Piper’s kitchen calendar this morning when I was led to read from Psalm 23:6 in the Passion Translation, where the Psalmist inquired of the Lord saying,

“So why would I fear the future? For your goodness and love pursue me all the days of my life…”  

The word translated “goodness” has a long list of connotations including “good, pleasant, agreeable, valuable in estimation, happy, prosperous and becoming.” (Brown-Driver-Briggs)  But the definition that stood out to me today, was the idea of God’s “goodness” as being something that is “appropriate” to us, which Dictionary.com describes as something that is “suitable or fitting for a particular purpose, person or occasion.”

And while I admit, that I immediately thought about all the inappropriate things that were done or said to Piper and I over the years of her illness, the Lord quickly turned me from that line of thought and bought it up-close and personal by asking of me…

“What is YOUR ‘appropriate’ response to the daily events of your life TODAY?”

Well… that question didn’t necessarily surprise or shake me, but it did make me sit back in my desk chair and think for a couple of minutes!  I love the way that the Lord can easily turn a direction of thought and point it right back to me!  Have you ever had that happen?  I would bet that we all have!

The one common denominator that I saw with the different individuals whose actions were… shall we say… less than appropriate toward Piper and I in our situation at the time, was that the majority of their reactions were triggered by personal fears that they were dealing with.  But with the Lord’s question to me about ‘appropriate’ responses, I immediately deduced that if we were to respond to any given situation according to the will and purpose of God… as found in His Word… then our words and/or actions made in our response to any situation would be driven by His love and not be tainted by our personal fears.

Kind of simple right?  Well… that is the way that I believe God wants things to be for us!  His ways and His lifestyle aren’t meant to be a complicated web of does and don’ts… but a life that is devoted to and led by His Love operating in, for and through us unto others! 

It means that we have to keep growing in the wisdom, knowledge, understanding and operation of His Word… but hey… If you’re anything like me… Well… that’s where the real fun begins!

Have a great new week.  Keep finding and responding with His ‘appropriate’ responses to life’s situations and be a blessing to others… and while you’re at it… keep EXPECTING God’s best in your life!