Whoda Thunk?

Last night, I went to Institiute, where I learned a lot about the creation story. We focused our lesson on the accounts in Genesis 1 & 2, Moses 2 & 3, and Abraham 3-5. My knowledge increased leaps and bounds from that discussion.

This morning, I listened to the Catholic Mass on the radio, where today's reading came from Genesis. It was the story of Hagar and Sarah, found in Genesis 16. The summation of that story is Sarah feels bad she can't give her husband any children, so she tells him to try that with her handmaid, Hagar. It works, except Hagar is a little bitter towards Sarah. Who could blame her? After all, it was Sarah's idea, not Hagar's, that Hagar get knocked up.

Well, Sarah's not too happy that now her maidservant despises her. So she goes to Abraham and says, "My wrong be upon thee," or in today's lingo, "My problems are your problems, and right now Hagar's being a problem. Take care of it like a man."
Hearing Abraham's response in modern English by an old lady kind of cracked me up. I'll paraphrase, "Well, honey, she's your handmaid, you take care of it."
Proving that women have been prone to moodiness since the days of Abraham, Sarah's reaction was to lash back at Hagar. As Hagar ran off, I can imagine Sarah shouting, "Whatsa matter? You can dish it, but you can't take it? That's right, you better be running!" (Who says the Old Testament is dry?)
Hagar runs off to a well and cries her woes unto the Lord. He sends an angel down to calm her down and tell her that her seed will be numerous. And that the name of the son she will bear will be named Ishmael.
To be perfectly honest, I don't completely understand the next part of the story.
The angel tells Hagar that Ishmael is going to be wild, a nomad, and "his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him."

I spent some quality time pondering the story from both Sarah's and Hagar's perspectives, and felt a lot for each of those women. For some reason, it's easy for me to understand why they both acted the way they did, and poor Abraham.

The sermon was from Matthew 7:24, the parable about the wise man who buildeth his house upon the rock. i.e. the words of Christ. The father (guy talking) emphasized the idea that "whosoever heareth these sayings...and doeth them." It reminded me very much of the "Be vs. Do" talk at general conference. Essentially, the radio father was talking about integrity.
Which he defined as: practicing the faith you believe, acknowledging all your sin and trying to remove it. His wish was to "let our words and our actions correspond."

I've realized that mine don't always. Feel free to call me out when they don't so I have the chance to correct that. Please. I'll try to be better about doing the same.