REJOICE

When I tell my younger brother to wash the dishes and clean the kitchen, he reminds me that he will not have to do these things once he’s older. I believe that is his way of stating that I shouldn’t make him do chores that are not beneficial to his future lol. I respond the same way every time: “Maybe, but when you come home to a clean sink and kitchen you will be thankful because you understand what it takes for things to look like that.”

Fights with siblings will literally turn you into another man-get it? Okay, I will move on.

This happened last week. My mother told my brother to wash the dishes on Monday night which he “I am about to” his way out of. She told me about it on Tuesday, but I had to attend a party that evening before he returned home from school. When I returned, he was asleep. Mind you, I brought him food from the party since he asked and he woke up at 5. a.m on Wednesday to eat it, but he didn’t wash the dishes again.

At this point, you might be thinking, “Malthia, why don’t you just wash it?” Ummm, no. I cleaned the entire kitchen but left the dishes. When they go low, you go lower lol. Please do not take my advice. These were the dishes I was going to use to teach him a lesson, and I was not backing down.

I had to visit a friend on Wednesday and didn’t get home until late, so I didn’t want to wake him up to do the dishes, as I had done before. I instructed him to finish it before he left for school on Thursday morning. Guess what? He did not. Long story short, someone else did the dishes before we arrived home on Thursday. He still has a lot more dishes to wash, so he will still learn this lesson.

This makes me think of God, since even in my human wisdom, I believe that what I was doing for him will benefit him. What more God?

Yesterday, he replaced the printer’s ink and connected it to his laptop. My body was literally itching to help him (okay, maybe I helped a little, but he did most of the work), but I knew that it would do him more good if he did it himself. He did and he was able to do his project. I was so proud.

I think that’s what God does.

He stands as we sometimes try to figure things out with the clues He sends in here and there. And I know without a doubt that He just wants to take our hands off and do the work by Himself because He is capable, but what kind of father will that make Him? Now l can’t even imagine how God must have felt to leave that thorn in Paul’s flesh. He knew, though, that it was for Paul’s good.

You need endurance for this race but that can not be cultivated in the ‘soft life’ we all desire. When you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, God’s there.

Just like a mother who has to let her anxious child fall several times before they can walk.

There are no falls that he doesn’t experience with you. He’s celebrating your every win and helping you through your falls. It is all part of the process to make you more into the image of Jesus.

I don’t know what you may be going through, but I say to you ,dear friend, REJOICE!