Ecc Study Eleven

Study Number Eleven

Read Ecclesiastes 7:15-8:1.

“The man who fears God will avoid all extremes”

Kate handed an older man his change from her money box and hoped Jason had included all the pieces to the train set in the bag. She’d hate for the man to get home and find he was missing pieces. He seemed like such a nice grandfather type.
“Come back if you find you’re missing something,” Kate said. “If you didn’t get it, we’ve probably still got it here somewhere.”
“That’s awfully nice of you,” he said.

Kate couldn’t believe how much business their garage sale was getting. People just kept coming. Still, without any big ticket items and with a lot of folks asking if she would let things go for less than she had them priced at, she hadn’t really made much money. But that wasn’t really the point, right? The point was to get rid of stuff. Certainly, she was doing that.
She stood up and walked to a table piled high with clothes. She quickly straightened them somewhat and then returned to her seat at the card table. She wasn’t going to be able to get rid of all the clothes, most likely. She’d just take the rest to Good Will. She might get rid of all the toys, though. She almost wished she wouldn’t be able to sell all of them. There were several things she’d like to hang on to, if it weren’t terribly impractical to do so. The little slide and sandbox set, the see and say and the blocks would be nice to have if she had over a family with younger kids or if her own kids married and brought home grandkids in a few years. Hopefully, not too soon, yet, but Lauren and Jack had just graduated from high school. Marriage and family might not be that far away. She’d just been twenty when she married Nick.
Actually, she felt kind of nostalgic about some of the kids’ toys. When a young mom marched off with Lauren’s dollhouse, she was tempted to run after her and beg her to bring it back, tell her she’d decided not to sell it after all.
But the things just took up too much space and she and Nick were seriously contemplating a big move soon. Nick had been offered a position at the Bible college where the twins were enrolled for the fall. His teaching would enable the twins to attend for free—as a faculty perk. And, what was more important to Kate was that they’d continue to be close to the kids. Jason would come with them of course and after four years of high school, he might go to the college too, if he wanted, if Nick was still teaching, or even if he wasn’t. Nick and Kate would help him pay for it. It would be good for him to work to put money toward his schooling himself too.
Kate totaled up another sale and watched the neighbor kids walk away with big smiles on their faces. She certainly didn’t begrudge them their purchases and hoped they would really enjoy them. They’d purchased a box of Legos. What a pain those things were to clean up. She had found them all over the house and they’d often gotten stuck in the vacuum cleaner. She could hardly believe she’d ever let the boys have them.
Kate had continually scrimped and saved, been such a careful bargain hunter, constantly making a beeline for clearance aisles in the department stores and braking for garage sales. She’d had to in order to give the kids the number of clothes and toys they had had on the salary Nick brought home. Not that they’d needed so much. But she had never wanted them to feel deprived. Her mother had been the same way, so good in seeing that she and her sisters never really felt the pinch of being far below the median income. She’d been careful in striving for good deals on their groceries too. She’d prided herself in her ability to stretch their pennies.
As she went through their things, pricing items for the garage sale, especially the clothing items, of the kids’ she couldn’t help remembering going through those beautiful, expensive items purchased by a carefully squandered grocery store clerk salary. Her sister had always had to look just right, had to have everything in-style, name-brand. It all fit her need for recognition, Kate supposed. Kate couldn’t really relate to that obsession for being well-liked, nor had she ever been as good at getting people to like her and admire her and want to be around her.
I was jealous of her, Kate suddenly realized, the thought surprising her. She’d believed that her feelings were maternal, that she was just a sort of second mom to her little sister and that her guilt was because she should have known, should have seen, should have done something. Well, she had felt guilt for those reasons, but she’d also felt guilty because she’d sometimes resented the attention and popularity, had sometimes wanted it for herself.
I can relate, after all. We’re not so different. In fact, it could have been me, Kate thought. She didn’t feel comfortable with the thought, in fact, didn’t want to think it. Her life was so different. Yet, it was true that sometimes when she saw that face, it was her own face that she saw—Kate, the pastor’s wife, Kate, the mother, Kate the good daughter, the eldest daughter, the hard-working daughter’s face. Kate also felt empty sometimes, wondering if there was any real value in what she was doing. Doing. Doing Doing. That was Kate. Always doing.
Then there were Clare and Annie. Little sister Clare all grown up with children of her own, still so professional and sophisticated but a little less restless now, maybe. A little less philosophical and a little more parental, perhaps. Maybe Clare and Kate were changing places. Annie remained a bit of a mystery. Kate knew something devastating had happened to Annie when she went out west to school, so far from their parents in Kansas and even farther yet from her sister in Wisconsin. She thought it had something to do with that guy Annie had dated for a while. He’d apparently broken her heart. Kate had known from the start that he was bad news, as soon as Annie told her she wasn’t sure he was a Christian, and she’d told Annie so, but— Another reason to feel guilt. At least the ending, as far as she knew, hadn’t been so—unthinkable. Annie was still—but in some ways Annie wasn’t really living, any more than—
Kate walked down the sidewalk, calling a greeting to Renee Carter, who had just arrived with her young daughter in tow. “Good to see you, Renee. How are you all?”
“I’m hitting up garage sales all over town,” Renee said. “It’s the only way I can afford to keep this one clothed. She grows so fast. The other one’s with his dad. Or his dad’s with him, he’d probably rather say.”
Kate laughed. “They do grow so quickly. It can be hard to keep up.” She sized up Becca with a quick look. “I don’t know that I have anything that would work for her—I’ve already gotten rid of most of the smaller clothing items, things Lauren wore three or four or more years ago--but wait—“ Kate looked the girl up and down with surprise. “Becca is so tall and Lauren has always been so petite. They might actually be close to the same size now. Becca’s twelve now, right?”
Renee nodded. “It’s worth looking,” she said. “Are the kids around today?”
“Not right now. Nick took them out for lunch. He was going to pick up a pizza, but I said they should just go out. I don’t mind staying here. I just made myself a quick sandwich.”
“So they’re spending the money as fast as you make it,” said Renee.
“I guess so,” Kate said. She shook her head and smiled slowly. “We’re not going to get rich any time soon.”
Renee shrugged. “Even if you did, do you think you’d feel like you had everything you wanted?”
“Probably not,” Kate said. “It didn’t work for my sister Clare. She was actually happy when she stopped receiving as much money for her books. When she published a sequel that wasn’t as popular, she said she started managing her money so much better.” Kate laughed. “You know, I was really critical of her when she wasn’t managing her money well. But she reminded me that when I was in college I had a good job and was buying a lot of things I didn’t need. Just like her, I kind of got a wake-up call when I got married and wished I’d been planning a little more for my future though there were still more things that I wanted to have then.”
“We’re all slow learners,” said Renee.

Questions to Answer

1. What do you think it means to be overrighteous or overwise?

2. Why is it good to keep in mind that we all struggle with sin and the search for wisdom?

3. How is Kate like and unlike her sister Clare?

4. Do you relate more to Kate or to Clare? What issues is God working on with you?