Abusing the blessing

Today, I woke up and had an argument with my wife. It was silly. You see, for some reason, I’m a morning person and my wife, well, she’s not a morning person. This is normally a great setup. I’ll end up having some time alone in the morning, while she is catching up on much needed sleep. Sometimes, she has trouble sleeping at night, so the morning is a good time for her to sleep. This morning, as usual, I was up working on my websites. And she was sleeping. I took care not to be noisy on the computer this morning, but she is such a light sleeper that I woke her up. She was upset that I woke her up, and I was upset that I had to go out of the room to let her sleep, so this morning it did not go as planned. I got my feelings hurt and I drove out to the park to get away. At the park, on a Monday morning, it’s very quiet. It’s such a contrast to Sunday evening. On the weekend, there’s so many people here. This morning I have been simply soaking in all of the beautiful scenery of the park and I noticed, for the first time, all of the trash left behind from everyone the day before. In the pond and streams there’s trash. Near the grills and picnic table there’s trash. From a distance the surface of the water is beautiful, but once you look beneath the surface, the water is full of trash left by many people over the years. It’s funny I have been coming to this park for almost 10 years and I never noticed the trash until now.

This is a type of allegory of my life and in some ways it may resemble your life in part, too. From a distance it appears like I’m the perfect example of a good person, but once you go deeper there’s a lot of trash that pollutes my life and the life of others. I’m selfish. I take advantage of others’ love. I’m just in it for myself. I put my desires before the desires of others. This reminds me of how God looks at us and what we should be mindful of. In 1 Samuel 16:7 God tells Samuel, “For the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart”. Let us not be concerned about so much how we appear on the outside, but us go deeper and fulfill God’s purpose for us by being who God wants us to be. I’m not saying that our outward appearance is not important, but that we can become a selfish god unto ourselves if we do not change our heart towards the desires of God’s heart. Just as people abused the blessing of the park by leaving their trash everywhere, that was how I abused the blessing of my wife by taking her for granted and not thinking of her needs before mine. Let us not abuse the blessing that God has given us with people around us and His salvation. Rather, let us be a blessing to others around us, putting them first and ourselves second. Don’t abuse the blessing God has given you.

PRAYER: Jesus, today, I give you all of my life and blessings. Teach me to value and love the people and many blessings you have given me. Teach me to not be concerned about superficial matters but rather let me be concerned with the condition of my spiritual heart. I worship you, Jesus, my savior, and give you my desires for your glory. In your perfect name I pray today, Jesus, Amen.