Daily Devotional for January 31, 2022
Who’s Your Boss?
“It’s not fair!” Easton said as he walked into his grandma’s apartment. “I got angry and yelled at Mom this morning, and now I’m grounded. But Dad yells at Mom all the time, and no one punishes him!” He flopped down at the table in front of a mug of hot chocolate.
Grandma took a seat beside him. “I know how you feel,” she said. “When I was a little girl, I got sent to my room for doing something my brothers often got away with. I felt angry because it was unfair. There was construction work going on in the street, and I could hear three workers talking outside my window. Two of them were sitting in the shade, and the third was working. The two in the shade were trying to get the third to join them. ‘Who cares if we already took a break?’ they said. ‘The boss left for the day.’ But the third worker shook his head. ‘The boss wouldn’t like it if I didn’t do a job I was getting paid to do.’ The other workers laughed. ‘The boss left! He skipped out early on this job, so why shouldn’t we?’ The third worker smiled. ‘He’s not the boss I’m talking about.’”
Easton took a sip of hot chocolate. “The third worker was talking about God, wasn’t he?”
“I think so,” said Grandma. “Even though his boss hadn’t set a good example for his workers, that man remembered it was really the Lord he was serving. He reminded me that I served the Lord too and that what I had done was wrong, even if my brothers seemed to get away with it.”
Easton sighed. “I know it was wrong of me to yell at Mom, even though my dad does it.”
Grandma nodded. “Your dad struggles with a lot of things, Easton. Instead of looking to him as your example, follow Jesus’s example. You’ll be setting a good example for your dad too, and we’ll keep praying that he’ll come to know Jesus as his Savior. When things seem unfair, we need to remember that we all deserve to be punished for our sin, but Jesus took that punishment Himself so we could have eternal life.”
Easton nodded. “I’ll apologize to Mom when I get home.”
-Carolyn E. Yost
How about you?
Do you feel angry when others get away with something you don’t? It may seem unfair, especially when it’s someone you respect, like a parent, teacher, or other adult. Don’t follow their example and do something that’s wrong. Remember that Jesus took the punishment for all our sins and that one day He’ll make everything right. Serve Him and follow His example.
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