Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Mark 7-8
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 13:57
Jesus: Prophets are respected—except in their hometowns and in their own households. There the prophet is dishonored.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
What do you think about your siblings? Do you honor the members of your family? I remember growing up as the second child, I always felt I had to be as good as my older brother. I knew in my head my parents didn’t expect that. I think they recognized, like all parents that every kid is different. We all have our unique personalities, talents, and skills, but there was always that one upsmanship between us when growing up.
And it was really hard for me following my older brother in school. You see, my brother is really smart. I mean bordering on genius smart, well not really. I mean genius smart. He never opened a book in school, but made A’s in every class. He could look at a page of material and in about a minute he could tell you everything on the page. If you called him right now, he could probably tell you the license plate number of the first car he ever owned and maybe the VIN number of that car.
I mean the guy is brilliant with numbers and science and facts. So I had to follow two grades behind him and got a lot of his former teachers. Not fun! I had to work a lot harder than he did to make those A’s. I had to study a lot more, spend a lot more time in the book, figure out ways to keep the information in my brain and organized so I could retrieve it.
The funny thing was, he didn’t care about any of that stuff. He ended up as salutatorian of his high school class because he goofed off all the time and ended up about two point below the valedictorian. I worked hard to beat him in school and was valedictorian. But now, I don’t care. So what. What does it get me. Nothing really. But my genius brother? Wow! Dropped out of college because he was bored. He finished later, but out of high school his professors couldn’t challenge him and he just quit.
So I could tell all kinds of stories about my siblings. I picked on my brother, because he is probably the one most off the scale on all the intelligence tests. But we all picked at each other, called each other names, knew none of us would amount to anything. Told tales on each other. But let me tell you where they are today.
My older brother, retired from the navy and is an independent consultant after spending several years in quality assurance in the manufacture of medications for infants with respiratory problems. He’s called on by companies all over the US and Europe to problem solve issues in pharmaceutical manufacturing, especially for medical gases.
My oldest sister owns her own business with her husband providing care to individuals in the midwest. Their appointment books are full enough that they have a six month waiting list to get in. My youngest sister is vice president in one of the large banks near the town where she grew up. I say she grew up, because we’re eleven years apart and since my dad was a pastor, I moved a lot growing up, but when I went into the Army he took a church where he stayed for 26 years. So my youngest brother and sister spent most of their growing up years in the same place, unlike the rest of us.
My youngest brother? He spent time in the Navy and has done several things after that, working to finish a degree in psychology to help veterans with PTSD. I’d say they all did pretty well for themselves.
But when we all get together, we’re just brothers and sisters again. Nothing special about any of us. We have a hard time seeing past our family relationships to see the successes each have accomplished to be able to listen to what each says in their own field of expertise. It’s funny that way isn’t it. But with every family I’ve counseled through the years, it seems to be the same. We have a hard time seeing past family to see the accomplishments of the person buried inside that mother or father, brother or sister, son or daughter.
Maybe today is a good time to just stop and think about what your siblings have accomplished in life. Maybe it’s time to give some praise to those who love you best even when things are tough. Maybe it’s time to take inventory of good that comes from your family and share it with the people outside your family circle and give some praise for the family that surrounds you. Maybe it’s also time to let your family know how much you admire them and the accomplishment, the successes they have.
Jesus couldn’t do much in his home town because his relatives, those who grew up around Him, couldn’t see past their family relationships to see what He had done. What a difference He could have made in their lives if they had just given Him a little credit for what He had done! How about giving some credit and some praise in your family?
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