It is more blessed to give than to receive so it is said and the Christmas season (or holiday season if you are offended by Christmas) is the season for giving. There are collection centers that take new toys and distribute them to poor children and the needs of the poor and elderly. All these are worthy projects and I wouldn't change any of them. What bothers me is that some people are poor because they are too lazy to help themselves except when it comes time to take advantage of other people.
A good example of this is the actions of the family of a crippled widow woman who attends our church. The woman has a son but he won't bring her to church so she has to beg other church members to give her a ride yet she never offers to pay for gas or buy them lunch. She never contributes a dime to the church yet she helps herself to three or four bottles of water every Sunday morning and Sunday night. None of her family ever darken the doors of the church unless the words free or food are involved. Saturday was the church's Christmas dinner so her son, two daughters, and all the kids showed up, ate at least three plates full of food and then took home 13 heaping full plates full of food. They didn't ask nor say thank you.
Of course her family didn't make it to church Sunday but they do plan on coming for the evening service on the 15th. That is the night of our Christmas play and when we traditionally give out our treat bags full of fruit, nuts, and candy. The last time these people came to church was at homecoming when we had dinner on the ground. On three occasions we have collected food to give to them and they want to avail themselves of everything free the church offers.
We had a chicken dinner a couple of months ago ($8.00 a plate for 1/2 BBQ chicken and fixins, including desert) and the mother asked to be given three plates for free and then asked to have the plates delivered to her 18 miles away from the church.
I gave one man 7 shirts and six pairs of pants and then he had the nerve to complain that he didn't have a good pair of shoes to wear the clothes with and asked me to buy him a pair. Another pay who doesn't work asked the preacher to tell me to DVD his brothers funeral, then go mow his grass (he lives 30 miles from me). I reluctantly agreed to do the funeral except I refused to get any shots of the body. he gripped about the fact that I only made the one DVD and didn't make copies for his family.
he took one of the bibles the church keeps to give to new members to put in his brothers caskets. He didn't offer to compensate me or the church. The pastor not only conducted the funeral but also mowed his grass and the preacher had to bring his mower over 60 miles.
I don't dislike poor people. There was a time in my life when the best I could do was sleep in the guard shack at the city lot on Green Street in High Point. I worked a full time job and a part time job that provided me with 30 hours a week. I won't go into details but I worked hard and had a good income but through no fault of my own I was deeply in debt and homeless. I had intentions of remaining that way. I worked my way out of debt and now I'm married, retired and own my own home. I never asked nor did anyone ever give me anything.
Some people are poor and their attitude is one of "I'm poor so I'm going to take as much from you as I can get." You feel about this people however you want to feel. We will always have the poor among us. Some are poor in spite of how hard they try while others are poor because they try hard not to try.'
No comments:
Post a Comment