Sunday Morning, May 2, 2010, 

Today, we were blessed to have Sis Joy with us for our morning meeting. Last week, she entered back into a relation with Christ. Also, Jordan was there again and his face is healing up from his accident last week.

Some people “go to church” to have their ears itched. Today, five boys had their faces tickled with a feather to see if they would itch! Only one gave in!

No, we were departing or forsaking from sound doctrine and resorting to itching the saint’s ears, rather, our teacher today, Sis Debbie, was teaching sound doctrine. The subject?  Temperance.

Five young boys volunteered and she asked them to come forward and sit very still and close their eyes. She asked if they thought they could do that and they said “yes”. Then, Sis Debbie tickled their faces with a feather. All but one did a pretty good of exercising self restraint, at least during the tickle test. After, it was all over and the pressure was off, they all rubbed their faces real good!

Temperance is defined as moderation or self-restraint in action. It is abstaining from excessiveness.  Sis Debbie talked about six areas of life in which we should all be temperate:

• Overspending

• Eating

• Talking

• Recreation

• Working

• Shopping

Temperance is a fruit of the Spirit and as Christians, we should all be exercising it in our daily lives. A lack of temperance cause much hurt and suffering.

The lesson was well received and it is doubtful that anyone went away from the meeting unchallenged to be more temperate in some specific area of their life. That is what gatherings are all about. Being there for one another and challenging one another to do better.

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The morning meeting was followed by an afternoon gathering at Forrest Glen Health Care facility. We ministered to both the residents and staff. We have been conducting these outreach meetings for several years and have developed a good working relationship with everyone who is  involved. It makes for a long day, but true ministry always involves sacrifice and service.