We recently attended the
birthday party for our great nephew, Josiah.
The younger of two boys, at three years of age, he is independent and
willing to do and try things by himself.
After opening gifts, Josiah wanted to begin playing with some of his new
toys. The largest toy, which seemed to be
in a childproof and adultproof box, was what he chose to open first. Try as he might, he was not having success in
releasing the toy. His dad and others
offered to help, but Josiah wanted to do it himself. When he couldn’t get the toy out of the box,
he moved on to another toy. Then with
great patience, he would return to the larger toy and try again. He was again offered help, but declined and
went for another toy. Time and again, he
would patiently and persistently return to the big gift. Josiah’s determination and willingness to not
give up were admirable. After a length
of time, he finally accepted help to remove the toy from the box and was able
to play with it.
What a vivid picture of
the importance of patience and perseverance.
I, too, need to be willing to patiently persevere with the task at
hand. When it’s difficult, I may need to
take a break and come back to it later, even if it takes several tries. This situation also caused me to pause and
ponder how many times I delay my Heavenly Father’s help and blessings because I
try to do things on my own instead of asking for and accepting His help.
The lessons have been
taught, modeled, and seen. Now it’s time
to take them to heart and put them into action.
For this reason, since the day we heard
about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill
you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding
that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the
Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in
the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so
that you may have great endurance and patience, and
giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share
in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
Colossians 1:9-12
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and
sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the
testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let
perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not
lacking anything.
James 1:2-4
He
replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
Luke 11:28
Jesus
replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey
my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our
home with them.
John 14:23
But
if anyone obeys his word, love
for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him:
I John 2:5
No comments:
Post a Comment