Daily Devotional, January 25, 2024 Gummy bears

"If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For you will heap burning coals on his head, And the Lord will reward you." Proverbs 25:21-22

Most children love gummy bears, and I couldn’t blame them. As a child, I loved eating and playing with these treats too! Lately, I realised I can use the gummy bears to remind my children and myself to just surrender to the Lord our reactions against people who may be mean to us. 
Why gummy bears? Well, it is because of the two female bears that frightened the group that mocked the Prophet Elisha. In the Second Book of Kings, a story was told about Elisha being vexed by mean young men because of his appearance, as well as his ministry and his beliefs.

"From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. 'Get out of here, baldy!' they said. 'Get out of here, baldy!' He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys." 
1 Kings 2:23-24

In the above story, we can digress that the Lord sent bears to break up the group that mocked the prophet. Elisha neither threw stones, nor defended himself, but instead said something to them in the name of God.

As moms we know that our children at some point will encounter mean kids and even mean grown-ups , and we will not always be with them to defend them. The only thing that we can do is to tell them to just walk away, and not take revenge. At the most tell it to a teacher.

But we all know this is not easy for our kids because either they get too frightened, or with their immature emotions, they might just fight back. They are just like us, their imperfect moms, who might have trouble controlling our emotions when being jeered online or in real life. That we might just blurt out a hurtful word or confront, when faced by meanness that is uncalled for.

As Christian mothers, we have to take it upon ourselves to impress on our children that God sees everything, and that He is in control. That He will judge those who hurt us, and it is our duty to just surrender everything to Him.

In his letter to the Roman Church, St. Paul the Apostle reminded believers to not avenge themselves. And that they should continue to do good to those who hurt them as Jesus himself taught us to love our enemies.

"Do not take revenge,my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord.On the contrary: 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.'” 
Romans 12:19-20

Apart from avenging for us, we have to let our children know that the Lord upholds the humble. He will treasure those who are capable of fighting back and yet they put their strength under control because they want to glorify the name of the Lord, and abide by His commands.

Such teaching is perfectly demonstrated in the life of David, who before being a King, had the opportunity to kill King Saul who was pursuing him. In that story, David did not kill King Saul because he respects the Lord’s will to put him in authority. Upon hearing David’s testament about not killing him even if he had the chance to, King saul said the following to him:

"He said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day." 
1 Samuel 24:17-19

When we surrender to God our feelings of anger and bitterness towards others, He cleanses our heart from it. He cleanses it enough that we will no longer want to avenge ourselves, instead, we would just align to His will. Both this promise and truth are what we should take to heart, and tell our children. It may be hard really, but eliminating anger and thoughts of retaliation from our mind, will free our hearts to enjoy the peace that only our Sovereign God can give.

Thank you for reading through our devotional today. I invite you to ponder on  2 Kings 2:23-25 and 1 Samuel 24 to dig deeper on today’s topic.

Reflection Question:  How do you calm your heart against mockery and meanness towards yourself or your children? How can God help you process these emotions?

Conversation with the Lord: Heavenly Father, help me instill in my heart and impress on my children that You are sovereign and you see all things. That we do not need to take care of everything that emotionally bothers us, and that we should instead offer these emotions to You so that you can act on them. Teach me to fully trust in You so that I get to disciple my children in the same manner too. Amen.