A Lesson From the Amish
(By Rebecca Weiss!)
We are all familiar with the Amish, the group of people who live in Lancaster, PA , throughout Ohio and Indiana, and live without modern technology. I've grown up knowing about them and visiting Lancaster quite often with my family on spring break. This group of people tend to keep to themselves and don't associate with the modern world. Sometimes, however, the outside world intrudes in on their simple lives.
On October 2, 2006, a man stormed into a one man schoolhouse and shot 10 young girls, killing five. He then killed himself. The fact that this event happened, let alone that it happened to the Amish community, is very unfortunate. If the man had not committed suicide, many people would believe he would deserve the death penalty. Even if you're not a supporter of the death penalty, killing five innocent young girls would be a good reason to deserve such a punishment. However, what is most extraordinary about this event, wasn't the fact that five innocent children were killed, was that the Amish community FORGAVE this man. They not only forgave him, but they showed compassion to the widow of the killer and her family. They also donated money to the widow and her three young children.
This gesture of kindness is almost inconceivable! Here we are living our convenient lives and we have trouble just forgiving other Christians for petty problems. A man, not related to the Amish community, killed not one, or two, but FIVE innocent children and the whole community including the parents of the children were able to forgive. This is not to say that is was easy for them to forgive or that they suppressed their grief just to come to this place. They were angry and sad at what was done to them. But they knew that God had commanded them to forgive not just once, but seventy times seven and knew it was the right thing to do.
What a great testimony they have given the world. They didn't have to do anything spectacular, they just followed God and what He would want them to do in this situation. They didn't have to preach the gospel to the world, they just lived it out in their everyday lives. Let our actions speak for themselves, because after all actions do speak louder than words.
We are all familiar with the Amish, the group of people who live in Lancaster, PA , throughout Ohio and Indiana, and live without modern technology. I've grown up knowing about them and visiting Lancaster quite often with my family on spring break. This group of people tend to keep to themselves and don't associate with the modern world. Sometimes, however, the outside world intrudes in on their simple lives.
On October 2, 2006, a man stormed into a one man schoolhouse and shot 10 young girls, killing five. He then killed himself. The fact that this event happened, let alone that it happened to the Amish community, is very unfortunate. If the man had not committed suicide, many people would believe he would deserve the death penalty. Even if you're not a supporter of the death penalty, killing five innocent young girls would be a good reason to deserve such a punishment. However, what is most extraordinary about this event, wasn't the fact that five innocent children were killed, was that the Amish community FORGAVE this man. They not only forgave him, but they showed compassion to the widow of the killer and her family. They also donated money to the widow and her three young children.
This gesture of kindness is almost inconceivable! Here we are living our convenient lives and we have trouble just forgiving other Christians for petty problems. A man, not related to the Amish community, killed not one, or two, but FIVE innocent children and the whole community including the parents of the children were able to forgive. This is not to say that is was easy for them to forgive or that they suppressed their grief just to come to this place. They were angry and sad at what was done to them. But they knew that God had commanded them to forgive not just once, but seventy times seven and knew it was the right thing to do.
What a great testimony they have given the world. They didn't have to do anything spectacular, they just followed God and what He would want them to do in this situation. They didn't have to preach the gospel to the world, they just lived it out in their everyday lives. Let our actions speak for themselves, because after all actions do speak louder than words.
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment