May 12, 2020
MY HERO
Matthew 25:35-40
For I was hungry and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger and you invited Me in; naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him ‘Lord when did we see you hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or naked and clothe you? The King will answer and say to them “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.
Dorothy Ann Schiffhauer, 1926-2009
She married and raised five children. She was a victim of abuse, both psychological and physical (that is another story.) She was stricken with polio at age three, leaving her left leg a hanging atrophied, appendage with no use. To walk required her to wear a heavy steel brace that weighed 10 lbs. This, she would take off every evening, and put back on every morning. The entire process took 15 minutes, untying the knotted shoestrings, unlocking the lock, which held her brace steady, then lifting the device from her leg. This, in the later years of her life, was a hardship and required assistance. She endured post-polio syndrome pain. Her bones were very porous. She required several hip surgeries due to falls and weakened bones.
From the time I was four years old, I can remember my mother giving and giving. We lived several miles from railroad tracks. In the 1960s, there were many hobos, bums, vagabonds that traveled those tracks. They would stop at our house, and she fed them prepared meals or sandwiches. For years, into my late teens, she fed the backwoods loners who would stop at our home to get a drink of water or food. Many were so dirty and smelly, and the foul scent lingered 10 ft. away. She didn’t stop there. We ALWAYS had someone living in our home that she would take in. She was a magnet to those who needed help. She housed, fed, clothed ( she was a seamstress) neighborhood children, relatives, elderly, and those who had a mental illness. I’m not making this up; she had so little, she lived so simply, she gave, she loved, she endured, and she persevered. Our lives are like fairy tales compared to the Hell she lived. Yet through it all, she honored God. She lived as He requested, she loved as he commanded. Lord, help us to live our lives in the same way
Standing Together,
Debbie Smith