Growing up my little brother, Luke, always wanted the things I had, whether it be a shirt, a videogame, or my good looks. Every now and then, some of my things, things he coincidentally wanted, would disappear. I didn’t think much of it, probably because I often lose or misplace things. However, after a while, I started catching on to what my brother was doing. He was taking my things!
When I was 11 years old I hid my stash of money under my Kerry Collins (Go Giants!) bobble head. I had been talking all week about how I finally saved up enough money to buy a new basketball. The morning of the day my Mom was to take me to the store to make my new purchase I checked the status of my stash. It was still there. I happened to be in the kitchen getting a bowl of cereal ready for breakfast when I heard some noise coming from the direction of my room. At first, I didn’t think much of it. But, then I heard footsteps going down the stairwell from my room. I quickly jumped from my chair to see who it was. Of course, it was Luke. Once again, I checked the status of my stash only to see that it was completely missing. I caught him red-handed! As an 11 year old brother, my natural response was to try and get him busted as best as I could. If I told my parents, especially my Dad, he would be in for it. And to be fair, it would be the right thing to do.
Joseph, the father of Jesus, was in a similar situation. He was more than engaged to his wife to be Mary. They were “betrothed” to be married. Only an act of divorce could break this commitment, unlike engagement. When Mary became pregnant, the natural response for Joseph would be to call off the marriage. In fact, it was the right thing to do!
I could have busted my brother and Joseph could have divorced Mary and that would have been alright because it was right! For some reason I didn’t tell on my brother right away. And the next day was church. In children’s church that morning we learned about God’s forgiveness. It was clear to me that I could make a righter decision. Instead of telling on my little brother, I could forgive him and not tell my parents. And that’s what I did, I made the righter decision. Just as God made it clear to me that I didn’t have to tell on my brother, he made it clear to Joseph that he didn’t have to divorce Mary. An angel appeared to Joseph and told him the truth about Mary’s pregnancy (must have been nice). Joseph also made the righter decision in staying with Mary.
Have you ever been in a situation like that? Decisions between the right and wrong things are normally easy to make. It’s when there are two right decisions. God has a way of making the righter decision clear. Sometimes it is not easy, it could potentially be extremely difficult. But, God honors your decision. What righter decisions do you need to make today?
Author: GGF Intern, Gabriel Wilson
Option Key by Gerolsteiner91– CreativeCommons Attribution-ShareAlike