Step Up!

Gal.6: ⁹ “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

The story is told of a father and his teenage son. Periodically, the father pays a lawn mowing company to sort out the lawns around the house. One day the teenage son approached his father with this business proposal, ‘pay me the money instead and I will mow the lawn’. The father accepted the proposal and even gave him permission to use the lawn mower in the house. So, the boy did not have to buy a machine. But he was still earning what was paid to the company. Time passed, the boy was doing a fantastic job and the father was happy.

Then after a while, the boy noticed that his father always goes out and comes into the house through a particular route. There was a portion at the back of the house that he hardly ever saw. So, the boy decided to mow that part of the house less frequently than he did the other parts. One day, the father got home from work as usual but this time the dog wanted to play, and the man took the dog out for a game of fetch. He threw the ball a few times and the dog would return with the ball. Then one time, he threw the ball and the dog did not return for a while. So, he went in search of the dog and found it stuck in that bush the son did not mow, trying to get the ball.

The father wanted to find out why that lawn was overgrown, so he called his son. He said, “Son, why have you been cheating me and cheating yourself? Now go upstairs, get a pair of scissors and come back down here.” The man made his son cut that portion with the scissors. Four hours went by and the boy had made very little progress. The father came out, hugged him, had mercy on him and took him inside the house.

The moment the boy began to cut corners, we all knew he was going to get caught and it was going to end badly for him, right? Unfortunately, we play the role of this boy all the time, hoping that in our own case it will be different. Spouses do it to each other, children do it to their parents, employers to employees and vice versa. If the boy had thought, he would one day be found out would he have cut corners at all? It is easy for us to look at this boy and think there is no way he can get away with it, but we do it every time. God is telling you and I today that we need to step up. I am trusting God that we will draw strength from scriptures and we will learn a lesson on character from Daniel. Character is revealed by how we act when we THINK no one is watching.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I ask for the grace to persist in doing good works and consistently bring forth good fruit, in Jesus Name. Amen!