A Word every day to get you on your way!
Here is the Daily Dose for Thursday, May 9, 2019.
O Lord our God, you answered them. You were forgiving to them, but you punished them when they went wrong. Psalm 99:9
I Still Love You.
I remember the first time my mother put me in time out. I was personally not a fan. Yes, it was significantly better than heading off to get a switch, but that didn’t mean that I liked it. So there I sat, angrily “thinking” about what I had done. I wasn’t actually thinking about what I had done. I was just mad that I was sitting there not able to play. I was mad that I was not able to watch TV. I was mad that I was just sitting there in a corner while life was passing me by. Then my anger turned into sadness. I became sad, not about what I was missing, but that my mother didn’t love me anymore. Surely if she loved me, she wouldn’t be doing this to me. She must be mad at me because of what I had done and that was a heartbreaking thought.
Seeing my despair, my mother came over to talk to me. After telling her that I was sure she didn’t love me anymore because she had put me in time out my mother gave me the warmest smile and the best explanation. She told me, I was on punishment not because she didn’t love me but because she did love me. She wanted me to understand that she was not mad at me, but that when I am wrong, I have to learn that there are consequences. She wanted me to learn that from her because she loved me so I would not have to learn it from people who didn’t have my best interests at heart.
Friends, that day I learned that sometimes love looks like punishment. You see, I thought that my mom was mad at me and that she was trying to hurt me as retribution for what I had done. What I found was the people who love you most forgive you immediately, but they don’t save you from the lessons that consequences teach us. Sometimes, God does the same thing. We think that He is mad at us, but He forgives us whenever we ask, but He loves us enough to let us see the consequences of when we go wrong. So the next time you feel like God has put you on timeout, remember he loves you enough to let you learn from your mistakes.
Be Blessed,
Rev
Daryl Williams 