‘…thus shall the man be blessed…’ Psalm 128:4 NKJV
If you’re nice to others but not to your own family, you have a problem that needs addressing. So read what this man did: ‘The children were loud, cranky, impossible. I was tired and fed up… I decided…to run away from it all and have a day just for me…a day in which I did what I wanted… I was going to live it up and be as greedy as I pleased. I wasn’t going to tend to anybody but myself. I left the house with $50. “There, I did it!” I said to myself as I drove toward town.. Well, I drove to the shops and had a wild time in a bookstore and bought the collected poems of Walt Whitman. After that I drove…to McDonald’s and ordered two hamburgers, my own large fries and my own large coke. I ate everything without being interrupted, giving my pickle to anyone, or wiping anyone’s mouth, nose, lap. Then I bought the biggest chocolate ice cream I could find. I was free! …So I drove to a movie theatre and watched a movie without buying popcorn, without someone sitting on my lap, without taking someone to the bathroom. I was a free man. I was living it up—and I was miserable. By the time I returned home everyone was asleep. As I slipped into bed my wife whispered, “We missed you.”’ I answered, “Me too.” I never ran away from home again!’ The Psalmist wrote, ‘Your wife shall be… in the very heart of your house, your children…all around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed…’ (Psalm 128:3–4 NKJV)
SoulFood: Job 35–37, Matt 26:26–35, Ps 6, Pro 8:32–33
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright ©