Another good way to take care of your parents is by truly listening to them when they are speaking to you. Don’t be too quick to talk back, interrupt, grumble, or be rude to them. When you keep quiet and listen to them, you get to hear what they are saying, and what they want you to do.
Listening is also a way of showing that you care about them and their feelings. That you understand what they are going through. It’s hard enough being parents to you and your siblings, juggling work, church, the home and so many other parts of their lives.
Give them room to breathe by just hearing them out. That’s a way to take care of your parents. You think they are old fashioned or country bumpkins? They were once teenagers like you and understand you more than you know or can imagine.
After they finish speaking, then you can speak and tell them what you feel. That is honour, and that is a way to take care of your parents. And by the way, every parent loves to hear their children air their views.
Also learn to apologize, if you have to, and mean it. It’s also another way to take care of your parents.
This way, you get to listen and they get to listen to you too. Both parties have a win-win situation.
“My child, guard my sayings; store my commandments with you.” Proverbs 7:1 LEB
Prayer: God, please teach me to listen so I can understand what my parents are communicating to me concerning my actions.and words. Ask God to give you the grace to take care of your parents. Amen.
Action plan: The next time your parents are talking to you about something you did wrong, listen and don’t argue. Apologize when you should and need to.
Declaration: My children are good listeners. They don’t speak back to me. They are very cooperative.
As we continue in this series, we will look at another aspect today – “pray for yourself.” You know it’s very easy to judge others. You see them doing something you perceive to be wrong and bam! You find a word to quickly call them maybe out loud or in your mind. Your face even shows it even if you don’t say it.
That’s very natural. And God being merciful will give His Holy Spirit freely to you. The job of the Holy Spirit is to quickly and lovingly show or tell you some things.
One, the Spirit of God will tell you how you have acted like the person you are judging immediately. He shows you the many instances you have acted like them. That you are not any different from them. It is when this reality hits you that you will know you need to pray for yourself.
An example of this is when prophet Samuel told king David a story about a man and David was so quick to judge the man in the story. But when he realized he has acted like the man, he broke down and prayed. Learn to pray for yourself.
Another thing the Holy Spirit will do is to lead you towards repenting and asking for forgiveness immediately as well. He wants your remorse at the stage. And it is not a good thing to try and argue with the Holy Spirit.
Don’t try to say how different you are from the person or how the circumstances are not the same. It is the Holy Spirit you are talking with. He knows all things. He knows the minds of all men. He knows your thoughts, past, present and future. Just break down and pray for yourself.
Thirdly, He will reveal to you the probable reason why the person is doing what they are doing. He wants you to understand so you can empathize with them. This does not in anyway mean He accepts what they are doing. No! But He only wants you to not commit the sin of judging others thereby causing yourself to be judged as well. When He shows you this, it also makes you pray for yourself, so that you don’t fall into the same thing.
Finally, He could show you other ways you can help this person out. Apart from praying for them, He could show you what you have that they need and that you can give them. For instance, if you noticed a classmate who cheats during exams, you could pray for them and offer to teach them some school work after school hours. That’s what the Holy Spirit would want you to do.
Judging others does no good to anyone. Not to you or the other person.
May the Holy Spirit watch over your thoughts, words and actions. Amen.
Prayer: Sweet Holy Spirit, show me my faults. Brood over my words, thoughts and actions in Jesus’ name, amen.
Action point: Listen to the prompts of the Holy Spirit anytime you feel like judging someone, and pray for yourself.
The power of a genuine prayer for something to happen or for someone to change can never be overrated. Instead of judging your friends, pray for them. Prayer is one mighty tool to use to create the change you want. In its purest form, it touches the heart of God and moves His hands to do the miraculous. And God always listens to a prayer said on behalf of someone.
When God hears your prayers concerning somebody, He listens. So pray for them. It is called intercession. When you intercede on behalf of someone, asking God to help them have a change of heart, He loves it. This is because God loves it when people change from being bad to good. That’s why He sent Jesus to die for us all
Instead of judging someone, pray for them. Speak to God about them. Ask God to help them see the errors of their ways and stop doing every wrong think they are doing. Give them your prayers instead of judging them.
Your prayer is a cry for mercy to God for them. You are telling God to look upon them with mercy and not on their wrongs.
Instead of the punishment that they should receive for their wrongs, ask the Lord to forgive them and make them new again in His sight, just like Jesus cried on the cross, asking our Heavenly Father to forgive us all. Learn to ‘pray for them.’
Pray as often as you can as the bible encourages to pray always.
Prayer is like preparing a bowl of stew. You first gather your ingredients, get the pot and fire ready and start the process. It takes time to prepare the soup and the process has to be followed if you want the stew done and ready.
Continue to pray and believe God will bring a change in them. Don’t forget our anchor phrase this morning – ‘pray for them.’
May the Lord bless you as you pray for people. Amen.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, fill me with the urge to pray for others instead of judging them. Help me to continue to do this, in Jesus’ mighty name, amen.
Action plan: Who is the first person you think you should start praying for? Ask the Holy Spirit to show you.
Hypocrisy 101 is judging others. Let’s look at the story of Tabitha. Tabitha looked left then right, sure that no one could see her, she scooped two more pieces of meat into her bowl and covered them with some spoons of rice. She smiled to herself, congratulating herself for being so smart.
Later in the day, she found her sister eating more than the usual share of chocolate. She knew her sister had taken them without their parents’ permission.
“I will report you” she told her sister.
That’s hypocrisy 101!
A hypocrite is someone who condemns someone for doing or saying something that they also are doing or have done.
Just like Tabitha who stole meat from the pot and accused her sister for stealing chocolate and even threatened to report her to their parents.
Doesn’t it make you angry at Tabitha? How dare she do that? You would like to call her out this instance and call her a hypocrite!
See what Jesus says about hypocrites
“Why do you notice the little piece of dust that is in your brother’s eye, but you don’t see the big piece of wood that is in your own eye? You say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take that little piece of dust out of your eye.’ Why do you say this? You cannot see that big piece of wood in your own eye! You are a hypocrite! First, take the piece of wood out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly to take the dust out of your brother’s eye. Luke 6:41-42 ICB
When you judge others, you are saying that you are perfect and without any sin.
The bible makes us to understand that no one is without sin. Only God is without sin and that’s bwhy He doesn’t want us to live in sin.
Do you know that what you say or do shows how responsible you are? People can quickly judge that about you (how responsible you are) without even spending much time with you or knowing you for long? So you have to watch what you say. This truth cannot be overemphasized.
Imagine someone sees or hears you making fun of people all the time. Almost every time this person sees you, you are making fun of someone or doing one wrong thing or the other. What do you think they will say or think about you? It can’t be positive; therefore you must learn to watch what you say.
To you it may be fun and means nothing, but to the victim of your jokes it means something. To the person observing you, it says something about you. It shows how irresponsible you are because only an irresponsible person would take it upon themselves to always make jokes about people. So you have to learn to watch what you say.
A responsible person would rather help, support, provide and befriend someone rather than make fun of them.
“My brothers God called you and chose you to be his. Try hard to show that you really are God’s chosen people. If you do all these things, you will never fall.” 2 Pet. 1:10.
May the Lord take away the spirit of irresponsibility from you and give a spirit of responsibility and love. May the LORD help you to learn how to watch what you say; Amen.
Prayer: Lord, I ask for the spirit of responsibility and love. This I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Action plan: To become responsible, know what responsibility means. Then act it out always. Keep the phrase ‘watch what you say’ in your mind always.
