Hebrews 13:5
Let your conduct be without covetousness, be content with such things as you have. For He himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Picture it…Christmas 1960 something. All my aunts uncles and cousins are in our living room. My brother and I were showing the family our gifts; my new ironing board and iron, Steve’s new Tonka truck and tool set, my new Tiny tears doll, hey wait…where is it. That is my favorite gift from Santa and where did it go? Out of the corner of my eye I see my cousin with my doll! I ask nicely, ‘please give my doll’. She says ‘no, it’s mine’. I yell, no it’s not…I just got that doll from Santa…it’s my favorite’. I am starting to get upset. She refused to turn it over. I tell her again in a high pitched voice that was very serious. I was older and bigger than she was. I was getting my doll back! I lunged toward her, leaping over gifts, wrapping paper, the dog and a couple smaller cousins. She panics and tossed it behind the couch. I started to cry. Her parents took her by the arm into the other room for a ‘chat’. My Mom pulled the doll out from behind the couch…her beautiful porcelain face, was cracked!
Looking back at it now, I still feel the sting of that moment, and I still have that doll. I realized my normally sweet little cousin became a ‘bear of a kid’ when her ‘covetous’ spirit rose up in her. Did she get Christmas gifts? Yes. She had no need to go stealing mine, but, that jealous monster rose up in her, and she reacted -badly.
I think we have all had those moments. Now, we have not all reacted in that way, but, we may have wanted to! Look at the verse above. Great instruction about our conduct. Yet, if we are confronted with a situation, then start looking for how we should respond in a Godly way-it’s not going to happen. If we read, reflect and even memorize this verse, and others now, at the time when there is no provocation, it will be on file when we need it.
We, even as adults have moments when we have not been in control of our emotions. I have said this before; ‘our body will never go where our mind has never been’. Thinking about the correct, moral, Godly way to respond to life’s unexpected situations is a big help to us when it does happen. How do we know what’s going to happen you say? We don’t, but He did. By reading the Word each day and meditating on it, or I prefer to ‘marinate’ in it, the wisdom seeps into our pores. When something happens, and it will, the right response will have soaked in and now is there to be able to respond in a correct, moral and Godly way.
So I ask you; What have you been marinating in? Will it give you the response you desire to handle adverse situations? Hey, throw me a ‘response. I want to hear your thoughts.
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