Thou shall not judge. Beatrice scolded Mary from afar with her eyes. How could she not know that taking money from the cashier’s table was stealing? And now everyone knew what had happened.
They were good friends at school and Beatrice couldn’t bear the shame and embarrassment her friend had brought on her. She vowed not to be friends with Mary again.
Weeks before, Beatrice’s mother had followed her to school to see the principal. Beatrice had four textbooks that didn’t belong to her. She had taken them from the bags of her classmates without them noticing.
The principal had scolded her and asked her to return the books and meted out some punishment to her.
All through this, Mary never disowned her or felt embarrassed or ashamed as Beatrice felt now. How come Beatrice suddenly thinks she is better than Mary and labels her a sinner?
Here is what the bible says about sinners.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:23
The verse tells us that we were once sinners and not fit to receive God’s love but for Jesus who died that we might experience the glory of God in our lives.
No one can say that he or she has never sinned. Only God can not sin. Once we were sinners and now God has redeemed us from the consequences of sin through Jesus.
With this verse, understand that we can only continue to ask for forgiveness for our sins and receive help to not sin consciously.
And we are not to also judge others as sinners. Do not be like Beatrice, be like God, and don’t judge.
May the Lord give you the grace to not judge anyone. Amen
Prayer: Lord, help me not to judge anyone, most especially my friends. Help me to love them.
Action point: Before you judge anyone, ask yourself if you have ever done anything like they did. Would you like to be judged?
A wide and pleasant smile plastered over Tade’s face as he collected the bowl of food from the food seller at the school’s canteen. He couldn’t hold back the urge to pick a piece of meat and slide it into his mouth. But anger was lurking somewhere in the corner!
He had hardly taken two bites when someone crashed into him, sending both him and the plate of food to the ground. To make matters worse, his uniform was soiled with oil.
His eyes went from the food on the floor to the culprit standing over him. He heard the whole canteen go up in laughter as he focused on Yinka, his anger rising.
‘Why did you push me?’ he asked Yinka. Yinka chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. Tade saw this and just like all the other times like this, he knew Yinka would never apologize. This fueled his anger the more. ‘That was my lunch.’ ‘So?’ Yinka said, daring Tade to do his worst.
Tade bolted up in a flash and smacked Yinka straight in the face, followed by punches in the stomach and a powerful one to the jaw. Yinka staggered back, tasted the blood in his mouth, and spat out a tooth. Anger now ruled in the boys. Instantly Yinka responded with his own punches and the fight began.
At the end of the day, both boys were sitting in the Principal’s office with oil-stained uniforms, swollen faces, missing teeth, painful torsos, and no lunch.
Getting angry and acting out the anger, just like what happened in the story above, is why you shouldn’t let your anger control you. Tade got angry at what Yinka had done and attacked him, leading Yinka to act out his anger also. In the end, both boys had lost a lot.
When you hit back at someone, you likely will do so more than they hit back at you. And the person will also hit back at you more than you did. The cycle continues like that till it escalates to a point when both of you would have lost so much at the end. That is how anger cycles.
May God grant you the grace to hold back your anger. Amen.
Prayer: Lord, give me the grace to not be angry and act out my anger. Help me to keep my cool. Amen.
Action point: Pray that God will help you handle your anger well.
We have been examining how much it pays to obey instructions. In this grand finale, God showed His superior power over the rebels. He called on His fellow generals and did a quick meeting where it was decided on how to defeat the builders downstairs on earth.
7. “Come, let us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) go down and there confuse and mix up their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech,” 8. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the surface of the entire earth, and they stopped building the city. 9. Therefore the name of the city was Babel-because there the Lord confused the language of the entire earth, and from that place the Lord scattered and dispersed them over all the surface of the earth.
It pays to obey instructions. The people in this Scripture were definitely not walking in the instructions of God; so God came in all His glory and power and created confusion in their midst, gave them new languages, and scattered them, just as they feared.
He made them understand that He is our Creator and whatever He doesn’t want us to do is for our own good. What if the tower had collapsed while they were building and caused a lot of them to be injured or lose their lives? It sure pays to obey instructions.
The principal called some male teachers and they went to disperse the boys. They also ensured they caught the chief rebel, Daniel, and his small generals. Someone had to be punished.
What if the fence had collapsed and caused some injuries or loss of lives? Who would be blamed? The school of course. It really pays to obey instructions.
May the Lord protect you from all dangers as long as you obey instructions. Amen
Prayer: Lord, make me an obedient child. Help me in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Action Plan: Watch your associations. Are they causing you to rebel? Decide to obey instructions today.
