“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV).
If you remember, last time we were together I shared with you about the blessing our children received using the example of ice cream and how much my husband and I enjoyed rewarding our oldest with double what he was willing to give up.
I wonder if God isn’t like that sometimes? He asks us at times to give up something that means a lot to us: A job we love, a house or town where we have lots of friends and have built a community of support, or sometimes even our church because He has something better in store for us. However, unless we step out in faith (taking action before seeing a tangible reward) we’ll never know what exactly God’s plan is. Sometimes the blessing we receive is solely the knowledge we obeyed God and our circumstances don’t change. Other times, our reward is a double blessing of what we willingly gave up. Always, though, the reward is knowing we are strengthening our faith, trusting God’s way is the best.
So, while trying to teach the principles of blessing others to my children, they ended up teaching me a lot more. They’ve been doing a better job at blessing others than their mom, and I need to catch up to their level. More often than not, the real blessing received is just the knowledge that I have touched someone else’s life in a selfless way. After all, just as I feel blessed when my kids bless others, we bless God when we reach out to bless selflessly as well.
© 2013 Cheri Swalwell