Lawn Mowers Following Christ

Yesterday as I struggled to mow our lawn with a mower that literally stopped every 1-3 minutes, I pondered about the beautiful lawn mowing service we received by kind, Christlike souls in both Utah and here in Michigan...

Last summer, there was a week when neither Abe nor I had absolutely no time to get to the lawn.  Abe was working 15 hour days, and our newborn's catnaps were never long enough for me to mow the lawn.  As we left for church, I felt badly that we would be leaving our lawn looking so messy yet another day.

To our surprise, as we drove into our driveway, we found our lawn looking tidy and perfectly mown!!  We were shocked!  We had only lived in this house for a couple of months, so we had no idea who would even show us that kind of service!  After a few days, we discovered that it was our next door neighbor.  He said he enjoyed doing it, so he did it!!  He made it seem as simple as that; but as we've gotten to know this beautiful couple, we have further learned of their beautiful love that they have for God.  I believe it was that love that moved him to serve a neighbor he hardly knew.

A few years ago, when we lived in Utah, we had a home teacher who seemed to always come to our rescue at the exact time we needed him too.

Most male members of our church are called as home teachers.  They are assigned a few families to visit, strengthen, and teach at least once a month.  They are the ones we should feel comfortable enough to call first when we have a need.  I am forever grateful that this particular man and his son took to heart their calling to serve our family.  They served us as true representatives of Christ.

This home teacher served us multiple times... transporting manure was probably the ugliest of his jobs to serve the Mills' family, but the most inspired was at a time when Abe was out of town.  I was especially nauseated from pregnancy, and some of the children had stomach viruses.  We lived in an HOA, and we had to keep our lawn tidy.

Our grass couldn't go another day before it needed to be mowed.  It was on my mind the whole day knowing that it needed to be done, but my day just was not going the way I had planned...

At one point, Jordan ran to the toilet to throw up-  I was proud of him for making it to the toilet... but he didn't know the lid was still down!  You can imagine the mess!  I remember lifting the lid after his first upchuck, and then patted his back as he continued to lose everything else from his poor tummy.  Because I was constantly nauseated myself, I began throwing up into the sink adjacent to the toilet at the same time as Jordan.

As we threw up in unison, the thought came to me: "There is no way I can do anything else today."

Right at that very moment, I heard a couple of lawn mowers start up... It was our home teacher and his son!  They, on their own freewill and obviously inspired by the Holy Ghost,  came to mow our lawn!

Our lot was the biggest one in the whole subdivision, so it was no small gesture to come and do that service.  Not only did they take their calling to serve our family seriously, but the timeliness of their lawn motors revving up couldn't have come at a more perfect moment... my weakest moment of sickness and exhaustion.

I have told this home teacher that he still holds the trophy in our hearts as being the best home teacher we've ever had.  Yes, he served us at miraculous moments; but he and his son also visited our home faithfully each month to teach us sweet lessons of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

... and our neighbors hold a pretty big trophy in our hearts for being so full of the love of Christ.  We love them dearly for sharing that love with us.