We are pleased to announce that Missions Beyond has 501(c)3 status.  

This will now allow businesses and organizations to donate  to the school outreaches and assist families during times of difficult circumstance.

THE GOLDEN RULE

As a young girl I lived in a town called Fayette, Missouri. The town's history did much to sculpt my outlook on life. I was shocked by how some felt others were less and could be treated as such. A personal experience is forever etched on my mind that occurred as I walked home from school one day. I was mistaken for another child.  I was simply walking home from school, when I was approached by a group of children. I was roughed up and thrown into a rose bush. Our family had recently moved into that community, and that event was quite traumatic. It wasn't a warm welcoming moment. I could have allowed that memory to cause bitterness and hatred. I could have held onto my fear and acted out on others in the same manner as I had been treated. Imagine what things were going through my mind on the day my father said it was time for me to face my fears and walk home on my own again.

My wise father use that moment to teach my young heart about forgiveness and strength. He taught me about how anger and mistreatment can be handed out on the innocent. He taught me to look for not what was on the outside of people but what was on the inside. He taught me that it takes real strength to stand and forgive.

As I view photos of the past, visit places such as Springfield Illinois and Fayette, Missouri - I see the reason why so many would choose to react with hate and bitterness. When we remember the past, we hold onto it, it etches our minds and forms our thoughts. We can never forget the past, nor can we fix the past and make it right. I could have allowed my personal experience to make me a very different person than who I chose to become. I could have used that experience as an excuse to treat others as I had been treated. I could have allowed myself no longer to enjoy the colors of God's people, but instead only see things as black and white. Instead I chose at the age of 6 years old a guideline: The Golden Rule : a general rule for how to behave that says that you should treat people the way you would like other people to treat you: an important rule to follow when you do something.

I have erred along the way. You may have erred along the way. We will make mistakes. We will sometimes fall prey to our own selfishness. It's up to us whether we will remain in that fallen state or rise to change. Using the past as a reminder that we can change only the now. As we change the now, we can also know that it will change 'worlds' of people around us.

Matthew 7:1-12 puts it this way:

1 Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. 6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! 12 (The Golden Rule) “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.