Can I Get A Wittness

Everyone should have a body of witnesses; people who continually keep watch over you to encourage you to live well and appropriately.  I am “prone to wander”, as I suspect all humans are, but knowing there are others that are in the same walk and are walking with me helps me to stay the straight and narrow course.  An added bonus is that so many of my witnesses have traveled the same rebellious path that I did.  And thus, comes the moral of this story.  You should set aside times, several annually, to gather your witness together to assess the member's progress.  This is done quite naturally, first by observation.  Are kindness, helpfulness, and courtesy the norm in the group?  Does the goodwill include all the members?  Are the absent members missed?  Secondly, it is done conversationally.  The group should talk about the deep issues of life, religion, family, politics, work, health, and ensure we are basically on the same path with regard to the non-negotiables and listened to on the issues we might differ on or not fully understand.  Thirdly we should play.  Football, horseshoes, board games or cards, it doesn’t matter, play builds bonds.  Lastly, the younger members should be celebrated by the older members, they should be attended to, acknowledged, listened to, and expected to take part in all the above.  But there is one thing that must undergird all the rest in order for these witnesses to effectively serve one another.  There must be an agreed-upon standard, person and/or rule book that governs everything, a moral and ethical standard that serves as a guide to give stability to the group.  This standard must be outside the group to establish the fair treatment of all and also in the group to give each individual the tools to be a contributing member of the group.  In our family, we have given this role to God in Christ by the leading of The Holy Spirit.  The main gift They give to each of us, loving, forgiving, understanding grace, and—a demand we act the same toward all members of our group.  It makes for lively Happy Thanksgiving as many of our witnesses gathered yesterday to re-establish our family is on the right path. 

About half of our wittnesses.