Oct. 30, 2020 ~ Blessings

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1 Peter3:9 ~ Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

There once was a little bay horse named Asap, or Grande as I knew him.  He was a twin and he thought he was the biggest and bestest horse in all of East Texas!  He did not believe that you should not repay an insult with an insult.  Grande thought so highly of himself that he would give out punishment for the slightest of infractions against him.  Dare to forget his peppermints – then he would lead you to them and not move until he had his required quota.  Try to make him go to his room? He would reopen his door and have a nice run around the grounds while you got your exercise chasing him! 

But, Grande also had a side of him where he did bestow blessings.  He could be a cuddle bug on occasion and we received several high marks in dressage.  There was that one time though that he didn’t like the judge’s hat and we jumped out of the arena…..  But afterwards he was perfect (we had already been eliminated)!  He liked to suck on his peppermint candy and when he got his mani-pedi’s he would hold my fingers in his mouth for comfort. Not sure if he was waiting to bite me or if he was being nice….

The one thing I keep re-reading in that scripture.. “repay evil with blessing because to this you were called”  We were called to repay evil with a blessing so that we may in turn receive a blessing.  While we might not want to be particularly nice to that person that cut in front of us at the coffee shop, or the maskless person at the grocery store, remember; we were called.  We were all called to play nice in this big sandbox of life.  While we may not like it, we will inherit a blessing.  What else are we going to do?  Be mad at the world because someone doesn’t want to interpret the sandbox rules the same way you do? 

Life is short, we might as well look at the glass as half-full, not half-empty; at least we have a glass!    But we all know the real blessing we are going to receive don’t we?

Gracious God,
As we start another day, thank you for the many blessings that I have in my life.  For keeping me safe and protecting those that I love.  Please remind me to take a moment and breathe when I feel the need to repay evil for evil, and to walk away from that moment as I can.  We are in that other person's presence but a moment, but our words, thoughts and deeds can last a lifetime.  Amen

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