Tiny Devotional for Monday, 10/12/2020

 A great good morning to you, Internet friends and neighbors!  And, to those family members who stumbled onto this morning’s post: what did our ancestors do to keep pests out of the stored grain?

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But a wise man is he who listens to counsel. 
Proverbs 12:15, NASB


Confession: By this standard, I’ve been a fool for MOST of my life. An EDUCATED fool, but a fool nonetheless; I HATED having someone tell me how to do something, ESPECIALLY if they were correcting my technique. 

When I was in my mid 30s, I was on a retreat weekend, cooking breakfast. A DEAR brother told me I was stirring the grits wrong; I almost hit him with the ladle. That incident, plus at LEAST two others during that same retreat, pushed me to seek help. What was WRONG with me, that I flared up with such rage at a simple correction /suggestion /instruction?

The answer: in my heart, I believed I was worthless. I was afraid that my feeble attempts to construct a useful life would be shattered by the slightest disturbance. So, I flashed into PROTECT mode when attacked; and, EVERYTHING was an attack.

That very same weekend, I heard a meditation about Simon Peter. He denied Jesus three times; Jesus restored him, three times.

Could I be restored, like Simon Peter?  I cried out to God: “Oh, Lord, I am no good, no good at anything!”

He showed me I was wrong about that.

It wasn’t the last lesson, but it was the first, best lesson. And today, because it no longer threatens me, today I actively SEEK counsel.

Peace be on your household.

Comments

  1. Habakkuk21October 12, 2020 at 5:33 AM

    Dear Internet friends and neighbors:
    I write the Tiny Devotion (nearly) the first thing in the morning. HOWEVER, for people who have clicked the ‘subscribe’ button on my blog, it doesn’t get delivered to you until the next day.
    Would you prefer to have me try to write it the night before, so that TODAY’S blog, a MONDAY blog, gets delivered to you on Monday?
    Or does that not matter?

    ReplyDelete

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