I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 15th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Micah 7:6-7:

“For son dishonours father, Daughter rises against her mother, Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; A man’s enemies are the men of his own household. Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me.”

That is quite a tough scripture, isn’t it?

Then we go to Psalm 62:5:

“My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him.”

It is very unfair to put so much expectancy on our loved ones. That’s where the trouble comes in the home. You must remember, our loved ones are only human, like we are, and they shall disappoint us many times. Children at university fail the year, devastation at home, absolute devastation, but look at the situation before you judge your child. You don’t know what they are going through at varsity. On the sports field - so your son did not get the gold medal, he only got the silver medal, my goodness me, folks! What did we get? We didn’t even make the team! And it’s not a joke.

In the business domain, just because your next-door neighbour has bought a new motorcar, don’t put pressure on dad and say, “Why haven’t we got one?” Never compare your loved ones with other people. When you got married, you made a covenant before the Lord. You said, “For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health,” so we need to stick to our covenant. So what is the solution? Well, the solution is found in Micah 7:7. So we will trust the Lord, put your expectancy on God, not on your children, not on your parents, not on your loved ones. 

Let’s have a good hard look at ourselves first before we start to humiliate our loved ones, especially in public. I have seen it - because a child doesn’t get the first prize, the mother or the father humiliates that child in front of everybody else. “Why didn’t you do it?” “Well, dad, mom, I tried my best.” “That’s not good enough!” That is very painful indeed, like the young man who had just become the world champion bull rider. I don’t think there is a more dangerous sport on earth, and he ran up to his dad, “Dad, I got it, I won it, I got the prize, I made the million dollars!” His dad turns around and says, “Yes, that’s good but let’s see how long you can keep it.” His son was absolutely devastated.

Dad, mom, when your child comes home and you look at that report from school and you see that he only got 95% this time, “Why didn’t you get 98% like last time?” Don’t be foolish. We need to exercise more grace.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.