Examine Your Priorities

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 9
 
“Love has long patience, is kind  ...  is not quickly provoked  ...  bears all things  ...  endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-5,7 JND
Mommy hurried busily about the house with the urge that everything be just right. The hands on the clock seemed to move faster than usual, as she cleaned and carefully prepared a very special meal for her expected guests.
Meanwhile, her frustration mounted, and she became more impatient as her preschool daughter kept interrupting these pressing tasks and creating new jobs to be done. When she could stand it no longer, Mommy decided to let her write, as the little girl enjoyed copying letters and words. This will keep her out from underfoot and too busy to undo my accomplishments for a little while, Mommy thought. Setting her busy little daughter up to the kitchen table, she gave her the Bible to copy from, along with some paper and a pencil. Then Mommy hurried off to finish the cleaning.
The little head with golden curls was bent studiously over her writing, and it was some time later when Mommy stopped to take an interest in her little one’s efforts. The letters she had carefully copied were various sizes and some words ran together in preschool style. Mommy read slowly aloud, “Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.”
Immediately she felt this as a rebuke from the Lord. Her young daughter, who could not read yet, had picked this verse, 2 Corinthians 11:1, to copy. She felt that the Lord caused her daughter to copy this verse to speak to her heart. She had put such high priority on the preparing for company that this precious treasure from the Lord had been impatiently treated. May the Lord encourage each one of us to examine our priorities, which often are the cause of our poor attitudes towards our children.