Which of the following are similar to the ways you've served Christ in your family? [check all that apply]
• Taught your kids to see God's glory in nature
• Washed the dishes without being asked
• Played a board game with your kids
• Encouraged your wife to finish her master's degree
• Attended a child's open house at school
• Worked fewer hours to be with your family
• Set an example of a godly prayer life for your children
• Held a crying child
• Swung on the tire swing with your daughter
• Told your wife why you're still in love with her
• Told your son he's got what it takes
• Coached soccer
• Let you child correct you now and then
• Fixed the vacuum cleaner
• Taught your sons to ride a bike
• Listened patiently to a complaint of your wife
• Taped your child's artwork to your office wall
• Admitted to your kids that you were wrong
• Told your children how Christ entered your life
• Cleaned up vomit
• Taught your children to love books
• Been romantic without expecting sex
• Told your daughter she's smart/beautiful
• Set standards for your kids and stuck to them
• Dealt graciously with a busybody neighbor
• Peeled carrots
• Watched movies together
Facing Down the Fans Theme of the Week: The Risk of Reconciliation Monday, June 17, 2002
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May/June 200253Facing Down the FansTheme of the Week: The Risk of Reconciliation Facing Down the Fans Theme of the Week: The Risk of Reconciliation Monday, June 17
Key Bible Verse: "Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father" (Matthew 5:16). Bonus Reading:Matthew 5:13–16
SuAnne Big Crow's basketball team was playing the Lead, South Dakota, high school, where contempt for Indians ran deep. In his Great Plains, Ian Frazier describes it.
The Lady Thorpes from the Pine Ridge Sioux reservation could hear the fans yelling phony Indian war cries, the "woo-woo-woo" of white kids all over North America. They filed into the hallway, set to jog a lap or two around the gym and shoot some warm-up baskets. As they reached the tightly packed gym, Lead fans waved food stamps to scorn the welfare received by some on the reservation.
Leading the team, SuAnne dribbled out to the center of the court, stopped, and flipped the ball to her teammate cousin. She removed her warm-up jacket, draped it over her shoulders, and began to dance the Lakota shawl dance—singing and swaying in front of her confused team and astonished adversaries.
SuAnne then dropped the jacket, took the ball from her nonplussed cousin, dribbled around the court, and laid the ball up into the hoop. The audience exploded in cheers. The relationship between Pine Ridge and Lead was different for years.
—John Stackhouse in Faith Today
My Response: A gesture I could make to bridge a chasm in relationships is …
Thought to Apply: Is it wicked of me because my skin is red? Because I am a Lakota? —Tatanka Iyotake, "Sitting Bull" (Sioux tribal chief, 19th century)
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