Root of Bitterness

by Kay Heitsch

Forgive right away before a root of bitterness can take root.

Several years ago, I was involved in a court case involving my neighbors. I won't go into all the details, but the wife had accused the husband of murder of their unborn child. When the facts came out, she had actually had an abortion in India.

It was a very emotional ordeal for several months, being played out in the newspaper to boot. Somehow, I was in the middle of the mess. The newspaper referred to me as "The neighbor," who was a witness for both sides.

I prayed and prayed about the situation. I didn't want to be in this, but I was. Of course, I had an idea of how it should work out.

However, it didn't turn out the way I thought it would. I was drained, upset, frustrated, exhausted, and started to get bitter. The bitter feeling was the worst. I could feel it actually growing. I became angry and even angry with God. Yep, I was mad at God!! Imagine that!

The bitterness kept growing, and I didn't stop in. Somehow I knew I should, but I felt justified in my anger.

One day I had enough of the bitterness and expressed to God my desire to let this go and move on with Him. I wish I could tell you it was better right then and there, but it wasn't. It was a process that took much longer than I thought it would.

I had to force myself to study the Bible and spend time with God. My desire to spend time with God was strong before this root of bitterness set in. Now I had to actually force myself. I remember going to church and sitting down. Before the service was over, I would get up and walk out. I took baby steps of forgiveness and moving on, but I did move forward with God's help.

I'm telling you this story, so if you ever get in a situation where you don't understand, and you need to forgive, just do it! Never allow the root of bitterness to start to take root. It's hard to uproot, but it can be done.

My mother-in-law said that when this situation was all over, both of these people would not like me. Well, that never happened. I'm still friends with both, they're divorced, and life went on.

Forgive right away, let go, and move forward with the Lord. You may not know why or ever understand, but that's okay. God does, and that's all that matters.

The Waving Walker

by Kay Heitsch

The following story was told to me by my friend Art Watts. This happened to him when he was about 17 years old.

Years ago, back in the middle 1970s, I used to see a young man about 16 years of age and a large dog walking along the road. When cars would pass him on the other side, he made eye contact and waved. I saw him almost daily, walking along the road waving at cars.

One rainy day I saw him and pulled over. I asked if he could use a ride. He said, "I'm not really going anywhere, just walking, thanks to the same, mister." I used to enjoy walks out in the countryside myself, so I thought it wasn't too odd. I told him if he ever needed a ride or help to flag me down, and I would do whatever I could. He thanked me and went on his way.

A few weeks later, I saw the boy walking; he didn't have his usual smile and was pacing that walking instead. He saw me and frantically flagged me down. As I got closer, I could see he was crying. I asked what was wrong. "My best friend just passed away. He was walking with me and just dropped; he's back by my house." He said through tears. I said, hop in, and I'll take you there.

The house was a small old farmhouse with a more extensive driveway. I saw a dead dog just outside the driveway. "There!! There he is, that's Randy!" He exclaimed. I checked the animal; he had been dead for some time. I told the kid his dog was gone, but he needed to keep him in his heart. We both cried. We took Randy to his house, made a marker, and buried him. I left feeling very blue.

After work that day, a friend came by. Odd coincidence, his female dog had a litter a couple of months ago. One of the pups named Randy, and he was the spitting image of old Randy himself. I explained the whole situation to my friend Jim. Jim said it was not a coincidence, and it was a sign. Jim said to take Randy to that boy and tell him to take care of him.

I took him up to the house. The boy must have spotted me driving up the long drive and went out to greet me. When I opened the door, little Randy came barreling out of the car. "Randy!! You came back to me!!" The boy said with tears of joy. Life goes on.

Door Bell

by Kay Heitsch

The doorbell rang.

My friend Jean* was recently told she had cancer. Even though she had been keeping a great attitude and was trusting God, she was still dealing with the effects of this horrible disease.

Now back to the doorbell. Jean's husband, Joe*, answered the door. He was surprised to see a man and a boy, he did not know, standing there. The man explained that he had actually lived in Jean and Joe's house as a boy years before. He was wondering if it would be possible to come in and show his son the house. Joe, being a friendly kind of guy, invited them in.

I'm sure it was evident that Jean wasn't in the best shape to this man, and somehow he was told of her condition. Much to Jean's delight, she found out that this man was actually the pastor of a large church in NYC. He prayed over Jean and invited her and Joe to his church. He told them they would be given the best seats in the house.

Jean told me the whole experience was like a dream. I don't know about you, but this story blessed me so much. It was remarkable that God sent this pastor and his son to visit Jean in her time of need. Jean tangibly felt God's love as this minister Let the SON Shine through him that day.

*names changed

The Mower

by Kay Heitsch

It's interesting how everyday happenings can make you think.

I was in a hurry. I wanted to get the yard mowed before it got dark. I opened the garage door and drug out the mower. I did my usual push the little red button routine a few times and gave the cord a yank. Yippee, it started right up.

I walked back and forth over the yard a few times when the mower started to act weird. "What on earth is wrong with this thing," I wondered. The mower started to make a choking sound and finally stopped. Good grief! I gave the cord several more hard yanks. I'll admit I was feeling more irritated with every pull of the cable.

I finally took a deep breath and whispered, "Lord, what is the problem?" A thought came to my mind, "I wonder if the mower is out of gas." Sure enough, when I took the cap off, I could see that I had forgotten to put gas in the tank.

As I was putting gas in the mower, another thought came to my mind, "How many times have I been in such a big hurry to get on with my daily activities that I didn't take the time to fill my spiritual tank.

This mower incident taught me a valuable lesson.

The Race Is On

by Kay Heitsch

After watching my son Todd run in a race, I made my usual comment, "Todd, I could walk faster than those women run." Todd laughed as he knew I wasn't a runner. "Listen, Mom, I want you to put your money where your mouth is. How about you run with me next year at this race?" Without thinking, I quickly agreed to this challenge. I felt this was going to be a piece of cake!

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine what the next year would bring.

When it was almost time for this race to occur, Todd wasn't going to be running. He had died in a car accident. A few of his friends knew this "challenge" I had agreed to with Todd. They started to encourage me to run the race. I hadn't trained or anything. Quite frankly, I had almost forgotten I said I would do it.

I decided I should keep my promise to Todd and run the race. The first thing I did was go out and buy some running clothes. I might as well look good, was my thought, even though I hadn't trained at all.

The day of the race came. I felt pretty emotional, but I started off. It wasn't long before some guy started to run next to me. I wasn't in the talkin' mood, which was unusual for me because I was on the verge of tears. However, this guy was very talkative. He kept making remarks on how tired he was, and I must be tired too. The chatter went on and on. The race was over, and lo and behold, this guy's wife won! I was just happy to finish and keep my promise to Todd.

I came home, and my neighbor asked about the race. I told him what had happened and how this guy would not shut up his negative talk. My neighbor laughed and set me straight, "Kay, don't you know what this guy was doing? He thought you were the competition by the way you were dressed. He wanted his wife to win." Oh really!?!?

The following year I did train. I even bought some tapes called "Win At Sports" and listened to them daily. If this guy thought I was in the competition, you could bet I was going to be in the competition. His attitude in that race built a fire in me! The race was on!!

When it was time for the race, I was all dressed and ready. It was freezing cold that day, but I didn't care. I took off all my warm clothes and ran with only a sleeveless shirt and shorts on. Nothing was going to weigh me down.

The tapes I listened to talked about how to run your race. It gave ideas about staying behind and knowing when to make your move. I played the race over and over in my mind when I listened to the tapes. Now the time had come to put it into practice.

I stayed behind this guy's wife almost the whole race. I kept her in view but stayed close behind. Then I saw HIM! There her husband was on the curb and not in the race like the year before. I'll never forget his words to his wife, "Watch out; she's right behind you." Well, mister, not anymore! Those were the words I needed to hear. I ran right past her and won the race!

God knew what would motivate me to run. I found that running relieved the stress I was feeling. I would finish my practice run and fall on the grass, and cry my eyes out. God brought me comfort and stress relief through running; He knew what I needed.

St Helena Day

by Kay Heitsch

After many years of putting off a project, I decided to "Just Do It." I went down the basement and dug up a big tub full of photos I had taken over the years. I was looking for some graduation party pictures to put back in the photo albums.

As I was looking for the pictures, I found several photos I'd forgotten I'd taken. I smiled as I recalled some extraordinary people and memories. One picture was of my friend, Maria, and her mom, Helena. Helena had passed on several years before. I decided to just take a picture of this picture on my phone and send it to Maria.

Imagine my surprise when I got this text back from Maria. "Thanks, Kay. Today is my mother's "name day." St Helena's day. I feel like I just got a message from her as well as you. xoxoxo See, God uses you in so many ways. :)"

The Pictures

 by Kay Heitsch

It was almost our daughter Shannon's high school graduation in 1995. We had decided to have a graduation party for her in the fellowship hall at the church. I'd attended a few graduation parties, so I had some idea what people did. I wanted this to be a special time for Shannon.

Over the years, I've been a big picture taker. In fact, people called me "Camera Kay" because I always had the camera with me. I'd been very diligent writing on the back of each picture and put them right in a photo album almost as soon as I picked up the photos from the store. As you might imagine, I had lots and lots of pictures of Shannon.

I thought it would be nice to go through the pictures and put up a kind of "This Is Your Life" picture collection on several wall dividers in the church for the graduation party. These dividers were huge and stretched across most of one end of the fellowship hall. I would need a lot of pictures, but I knew I had them.

I got the old albums out and started to go through each one. I took small zip lock baggies and organized the pictures. I made sure I wrote the number of the album on the back of each photograph so it wouldn't be a big deal putting them back. I had a baby, school, fun with friends, amusement park, family fun, etc.

The day of the party arrived, and I must say people seemed to enjoy looking at all the pictures. Now the party was over. I took the pictures down and put them in the little baggies with a post-it note in each, saying what they were. I took them home.

Life was pretty hectic during this time, so I neglected to put the pictures back in the albums. Bill had been transferred, our house had sold, so we would be moving in less than a month. Shannon went off to Ohio State that next fall.

I was always doing some kind of busy work using my hands. I like it, but my hands did not. I developed carpal tunnel, so doing any sort of fine motor skill thing was very painful. I thought about the pictures but didn't want to deal with the pain of putting them back in the photo albums.

Life happened again, and now we were moving back to Michigan. I still hadn't put the pictures back in the photo albums. I'd lined the photo albums up in two bookcases, but those pictures of Shannon were still not in them. Not to worry, I thought as I had a real good idea where they were.

We were having our deck refinished. Jeff, one of the guys working on the deck, called and said he would like to bring a friend and do some sanding if I would be home. For some reason, I thought, "Great, I'll just go down and get those pictures and put them in the photo albums!" I thought I knew exactly where they were, so I would be HAPPY to finally get this project accomplish after so many years.

Down to the basement, I went. I could hardly carry the big blue tub holding pictures I hadn't put into photo albums. I was sure I'd find the little zip-lock bags with the graduation party pictures in them. I didn't!

I did find some pictures and sent them to people on the phone and on FB. I was happy I could bring a smile to them, but I'm still looking for the graduation party pictures.

I'm praying to find them, but I believe something good will come out of all this while I'm still looking.