If You Give A Pig a Pancake

It always cracks me up the way the Lord finds ways to talk to me...

There was someone I knew that I felt sorry for, but wasn't feeling moved to help them with their situation. So as I always try to do, I check myself with the Lord. I was asking him "Am I being hard hearted? Should I help this person even though they got themselves into their mess?" I really wanted to make sure that I wasn't just being a jerk. In the past the Lord had told me "Don't enable them to do what I do not want them to do." But I wanted to make sure I wasn't just using that so I wouldn't have to be bothered.

So I kept asking the Lord several times to see if I was suppose to reach out and help this person. A couple of days later, I find a book in Jack's backpack called "If You Give a Pig a Pancake". I asked Jack where the book came from because he had already brought his library book home the day before. He said he didn't know.

So I sat down and read him the book and thought "this isn't a book Jack would pick" -- it just wasn't a Jack-like book. The book was a story about if you give a pig a pancake, he'll want your maple syrup, you give him your maple syrup and he'll want something else and so on and so on and so on...

So I sent the book back to his teacher explaining I don't know how Jack got this book but I wanted to make sure she got it back.

Then the next week when I went to volunteer at Jack's school the teacher had me go to the library as that was where the class was at the time. Guess what book the librarian was reading to the kids -- none other than If You Give a Pig a Pancake.

Since no one knew how the book got in Jack's backpack and the librarian was randomly reading the book, and it came up somewhere else either on TV or the radio -- it made me ask the Lord "What's up with If You Give a Pig a Pancake?" ... no answer...

A couple of days later I was still discussing with Him the situation with the person I was feeling sorry for and all of sudden the Lord brought up "If you Give a Pig a Pancake he'll want your maple syrup, if you give him your maple syrup he'll want something else" and he went on to recite the whole book to me.

This just reiterated "Don't enable them to do what I do not want them to do". He also showed me that sometimes we can hinder what he is trying to do. Think about it. When do we cry out to the Lord? When did we decide we didn't like ourselves the way we were and wanted change? When did we grow in faith? -- When we went through the hard times; when we finally had enough of our way and wanted to try his way. Many times we can catch people before they fall and never allow them to hit their knees. It's only when we fall so far that only the Lord can lift us up that true change and growth can happen.

So dont' beat yourself up if you're not feeling like you should give just because someone wants. Check it with the Lord. He will guide your steps. And remember if you give a pig a pancake, he'll want your maple syrup and anything else he can get.

Be loving; be wise; be giving and be blessed.

From an old Facebook Post March 3, 2010