All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him. (Genesis 49:28 NIV)
I grew up in a large family... two brothers and three sisters. To put it rather mildly, there was a lot of sibling rivalry! We would even form "alliances" and they were different all the time. Girls against boys, older against younger, the twins against everyone else.
Like Jacob, parents sometimes play an unintentional part in this rivalry by comparing their children to each other.... "Jane, why can't you eat all your vegetables like Johnny does?" "Johnny, why can't your make good grades like your sister?" Instead of making us want to improve ourselves, it makes us want to point out the flaws in the other. And there it is.... sibling rivalry.
As children of God we tend to do the same thing. God does not compare us to one another, but many of us pick out things from the Bible that we are good at to show what good Christians we are, and then pick out things our brothers and sisters are bad at to show how bad they are and how our Father certainly must love us more.
If we were to quit comparing and just use our own unique gifts and talents to glorify God, how glorious and wonderful this world would be! But we are so afraid that a brother's or sister's success is going to reflect badly on us. But if we all did the same things well, so many things would be left undone. And they ARE being left undone, because we are too busy comparing ourselves and trying to prove that someone else's success isn't really all that great.
God isn't fooled. And he isn't moved to love me one bit more than anyone else just because I might think I deserve it. We just need to learn to shine our own lights and delight in the lights of our brothers and sisters. Sibling rivalry seems to be a part of our DNA, but maybe if we can recognize it as it happens, we can change it into sibling support.
Father,
Help us to support one another in using our unique gifts and talents instead of tearing each other down. Help us to love our brothers and sisters as you love them. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment