By Chris WittsFriday 13 Oct 2023Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
The mother’s heart was breaking. She just didn’t know what to do. You see, her teenage daughter was in all sorts of trouble. She’d been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, and the matter went to court. Mum spent time sitting with her daughter, but they didn’t get on. They didn’t speak when they were eventually able to get through somehow the anguish of this ordeal.
Mum handed her a small wrapped gift, but the daughter was in no mood, no mood for pleasantries. But she opened it and the gift was a rock. What’s this for? Well, she said, Mum said to her, Just read the card and there was in the card the words: “This rock is more than a million years old. That’s how long it’ll be before I give up on you.” And this teenager started to cry. She was overcome by the extent of her mother’s love.
Now that’s a very simple story, but I think it contains a quite a deep meaning.
A mother usually doesn’t give up on her kids. I think it’s true that everyone wants to make a connection and to have this meaningful relationship with others. It’s sort of built into our DNA somehow. But when you try to build these relationships, things start to get complicated. It was like the two kids who were having conflict at home and they prayed their prayers to God.
“Dear God, maybe Cain and Abel would not have killed each other so much if they had had their own rooms. That’s what my mum did for me and my brother” and another child prayed. “Dear God, I bet it’s very hard for you to love all of everyone in the whole world. There are only four people in our family, and I’m having a hard time loving all of them.” Well, at least he or she was honest about the problem there.
Sometimes in the mix of relationships, when we don’t know what to do, when we aren’t paying attention, we can make mistakes.
We can get into or stay in these damaging relationships. We lash out in anger. We we’re not all that we could or should be. For every moment, in fact, we can betray our friends, or we can lie to our friends and now I think we’ve done this regardless of what type of background you come from.
We’ve all made mistakes when it comes to relationships, because when people feel loved, they act differently. They relate in a different way. When a child feels loved and accepted, they do feel like they belong. They feel a sense of being in the right place.
Now God’s word. The Bible says it like this, that the problem is that we were made for each other. We were made to live in each other’s life, to love each other, to encourage and serve each other. And that’s why in the beginning, when Adam was living this isolated life, God said to him, “It’s not good for man to be alone. That’s in Genesis 2:18. And when Adam and Eve were covering up from each other and hiding, God called out, Where are you?
It wasn’t because God didn’t know where they were. In fact, God knows everything. This question was really an invitation. He was calling them to come out of hiding into a relationship with him, yes, but with each other as well. As I said, we’re made for each other in life. Even though we’re tempted to give up on difficult people.
We can have difficult situations like for example: “How can I trust her again when she broke my confidence?”
But here’s what Jesus said. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind. And this is the first and the great commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. That’s from Matthew 22. So the two most important things in life are love God and to love other people. Now, if that’s true, it’s essential. We learn how to build a strong and healthy relationship with one another. Even when it’s hard and it seems impossible.
Because what I’m saying is that relationships are not always easy. They changed from what God wanted because we accepted sin into our life. We were designed to be hurt by those who we are in relationships with, and as a result, we can just give up and say, I don’t want to be involved with this.
But then think about the Bible. Be devoted to each other like a loving family. That’s a great verse from Paul in Romans 12, verse 10 and sometimes just listening carefully to what people are saying can be part of that healing process.
Let’s Pray
Lord, we don’t want to give up on anybody. We want to be able to make that connection even in the difficult times. Give us your grace, your strength and your help today. Amen.