Handle With Care

Sometimes we see on packages the instructions “Handle with Care” or “Fragile” written on them.  It’s important to pay attention to instructions when we come across them.  If we didn’t follow those particular instructions, we could break something very valuable.  That happened to us one time.  Some relatives from back East shipped us a beautiful, antique engraved crystal vase.  It was a family heirloom that was a wedding gift to a relative 150 years ago.  It came with an antique photo of the woman with the vase.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t handled with care, which ended in its destruction.

God had some important instructions for us to follow too.  In the Old Testament He told the Israelites in Exodus 20:12 –

“Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”

Then Jesus thought it was important enough to repeat in Luke 18:20 –

“You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and mother.”

In other words, nothing has changed, God expects us to still honor our parents.  To honor means 1) To hold in respect; esteem, or 2) To show respect for, or 3) To confer distinction on.  God knows that we sometimes won’t agree with our parents.  God knows that we won’t necessarily have the same lifestyles or likes as our parents.  Yet, God still expects and commands us to honor them.  After all God placed them in our lives.  He made them our authority.  Even when we don’t agree with our parents, this gives us a chance to apply biblical principles as we develop our relationship with our parents.  It is also a means to show God’s love to them, even when we disagree. 

If we don’t follow God’s instructions about our parents then we may end up with a relationship that is like that “Handle with Care” packaged vase that arrived in a million pieces.  Take time to show your appreciation to your mom, no matter what your history with her is.  Take time to honor and love her as God expects you to do.  Bless your mom with your love.

I’m Not Telling Anyone!

Don’t let this hit you like a lightening bolt, but we all have weaknesses.  As humans we all do things wrong.  We break our relationship closeness with God everytime we slip up, fail, sin, break a committment to Him, etc.  The key to growing in the Lord and growing closer to Him is to keep ourselves right with Him.  To eliminate as much of our sin from our lives as we can should be our goal.  However, many of us are afraid to tell others about our short-comings.  We don’t others to know we have sins in our lives.  That would break what ever image we are trying to achieve.  We want to look like the Christian that has it together.  Yet God in scripture gave us a very common sense answer to working towards eliminating sin.  The common sense answer is called “accountability”.  You might ask yourself how is that common sense?  How can accountability help.  For example, you have a very bad sin that keeps cropping up in your life.  It is actually very shameful if someone else knew you did such things.  It is embarrassing, yet you know you need to get rid of it or you won’t go any further in your walk.  So you decide to follow one of the accountability scriptures and pick out a reliable, trustworthy, mature Christian friend to share your sin with in confidentiality and you commit to not doing the sin any more with them witnessing that and commit to telling them if you commit the sin again and then ask them to pray for you each day.  One you are now getting prayer.  Two because you now have to tell some one when you sin again, you will think twice before you do the sin or if you do do the sin then you will be even more convicted inside about it, because now you are hiding it from them.  This sense of accountability will help make you to think twice before you step in to the sin again.  You also now have someone to encourage you on.  They can check on you, give you encouraging scriptures and support you.  So it just makes common sense to add a person to be accountable to when you can’t get past a sin in your life.  James 5:16 says “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”