Monday April 18, 2011

Speaker: Ben Sigman

Theme: What every parent needs

Weekend Music links on iTunes: Run - Hillsong, All Because of Jesus - Fee, Lead Me To The Cross - Hillsong, Arms Open Wide - Hillsong

Read: Genesis 3

Think: The words, "What about you!" seem to be a frequent rebuttal when it comes to conflict within families. Many times, we (including me) have a very difficult time admitting, or even worse, acknowledging that fault can work both ways and that we are not always the victim but perhaps a contributor to the conflict. This is always a hard realization to come to but until we do, conflicts will always take the long route to reconciliation. 

The bible talks a lot about blame, as a matter of fact, it was the first conflict between the first humans- Adam and Eve. Even they knew that the best way to get out of trouble was to shift the blame on the other person. Then the downward spiral begins, just like what happened to Adam and Eve, the blame game begins and at the end there is more hurt, pain, anger and heartache. 

What does it take to avoid this downward spiral? As pastor Ben said today, it takes "heart work!" Heart work, first, takes honest introspection. When conflict arises, your first step should be to ask yourself, "where is my fault in this?" "How did I contribute to the conflict?" When there is authentic introspection, you will always find an answer to these questions and these answers will lead to restoration. 

Do: Next time you have an argument with somebody, take a 5 minute "time out" to ask yourself where you had fault in the situation. Then seek forgiveness where it's needed. 

Pray: God, please give me the humility to see my faults. 

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.