May #jammed: Growing Grace.

Day 135: Measurements.

“Your future with Him will be certain,
    and you will not have hoped in vain.” Proverbs 23:18

It’s not a proud parental moment for my husband and I, but it really was a funny one. The negotiations on the kitchen floor over which shoe arrangement would allow my daughter to reach the top of the measuring stick. The switching into said shoes out of the line of sight of the one holding the measuring stick. The sight of our daughter walking up to that stick and congratulating herself on a job well-grown.

She laughed and cheered and rode that ride many times in a row…until the next person took their seat with the stick, and she failed to reach the top.

“But I just rode this like ten times!” she wailed, and we shushed her over and out of earshot to explain what had been smashed down by gravity and a few laps through line. She’s too little to go upside down and have limbs flailing out into the open sky, but sometimes we feel like we need to cut her a break. It will most likely backfire on us someday …but this was a family bonding experience we will never forget.

Today’s verse instructs us not to be envious. We sure might have planted a seed of height envy in our daughter, and many times in raising our daughters we look back and wish we would have let them grow in their own time. Plus, she now feels entitled to do what she isn’t allowed to yet. Double oops.

The cost of envy on a grander scale is much bigger than wobbly shoes and growing up too fast. Envy is a seed of entitlement.

“Do not let your heart envy sinners,
    but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.
 There is surely a future hope for you,
    and your hope will not be cut off.” Proverbs 23:17-18

It’s as if we’re wired to want what we cannot have. The urge to strive isn’t bad if directed in how can we serve God’s purpose here on earth.  We must always be in conversation with Him, through faith in Jesus, on where to place our efforts.

When striving to attain what someone else has, we run the risk of missing what God has planned for us. His plan is good. He is good. He is love. His plan is better than ours. And another’s life won’t look the same on us.

Father, Praise You for measuring sticks.  Thank You for giving us the Bible to measure our goals up with Your will. We confess that we try to force our way all too often, and ask for Your wisdom in knowing what to aim for in this life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 Get the conversation started by commenting below, and let’s encourage one another as we face life in 2017 armed with grace! 

#greatgrace17

Happy Measuring,

Megs

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