My First Restitution

Psalm 69: 4-12 (NIV)
  4 Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head: many are my   enemies  without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal.
  5 You, God, know my folly: my guilt is not hidden from you.
  6 Lord, the Lord Almighty, may those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me;  God of  Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me.
  7 For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face.
  8 I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother's children;
  9 for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.
10 When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn;
11 When I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me,
12 Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards.

Yeah, even back in the Old Testament days people were scorned, picked on, bullied for being different or not "fitting in." A belief in God would get you ridiculed and belittled just as it does today.

We hear so much of this today, especially with our children being bullied or picked on for not fitting in. Maybe it's the clothes they wear, the way they talk or maybe just for not "going along" with the crowd. Teach them this is not the way to be treated or to treat others.

My Grandfather tried to fit in as he was ridiculed by his friends for his belief in God and it caused him tremendous pain as his story continues:

"A neighbor woman come to our house and said, "Mrs. Brooks, I heard about your little boy getting saved. When he grows up he might kill somebody or get drunk or do something mean. He had better go join the church and be baptized and then he will still be in grace." But that didn't work. The boys that I run with got to calling me preacher. I got out of grace and backslid. Then I went on for about a year. I stold a rock drill, about 14 inches long, from a man. I lost it and I couldn't take it back. I had been praying diligently for three months and six days for God to take me back. He wouldn't forgive me until I made restitution. I was a little ragged, fatherless boy and had stold the drill from the wealthiest man in our town. I couldn't face that wealthy man and make restitution till a boy that I run with went to the alter trying to get saved. Early the next morning I went to town, a little over a half a mile from where we lived. When the man opened the door and let me in his store early the next morning, I told the man what I had done. I only had 23 cents in money and tried to pay him the 23 cents and told him I would pay him the rest as soon as I could get it. I told him I didn't want to live in hell here on earth and then die and go to hell. He said, "Tom, I forgive you." He wouldn't take my 23 cents. Then I went back home. He closed the store and went back home and called his wife and children in the room and told them what had happened. he said, "It is time that we was making a change." They went down on their knees and five of them got saved, him, his wife, two girls and a boy. He told the Doctor out of town; the Doctor got saved and went to preaching. A great revival broke out in that little town. When I was 12 years old I went to West Virginia and worked at the coal mines. Then I came back home and cleared new ground."