"I can obey your words"

 January 21, 2021 Musing

Something interesting I have been noticing that Joseph has been saying, "I can obey your words (name of who he is speaking with)!" He says it with such enthusiasm and it puts an end to all potential or the beginning of strife.  It reminds me of a Proverb:

"It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling." 

Proverbs 20:3 

And this verse:

"Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding." 

Proverbs 17:28

It brings forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness when he does this. The situation quickly goes from tension if he is initially resisting our words to great relief and joy when he humbles himself and simply says, "I can obey your words!" With all readiness to do exactly that.

There is much to be learned from his childlike example. We are called to be as children in this very sense... Humbling ourselves towards one another.

I asked Joseph's mom if she taught him to say that and she said, "no." It's just something he's come up with"on his own" lately. (Perhaps it's God-inspired:-)

This present society has taught our generation and the upcoming generations to be so haughty and contrary and to fight for selfish ambitions, to argue until you get your way.

But the way of the Lord is to be a servant.

What if we put to practice Joseph's example... Say with a family member who wants us to prepare food a certain way that we don't really want to, or to do something a certain way... What if instead of arguing we simply said with readiness to submit,

" I can obey your words Mom! :-)" or whomever we may be submitting to.

"I can obey your words husband"

" I can obey your words sister"

You'll notice an increase of peace in your relationships.

It's really not as hard as we think to submit to others. Just like it's really not that hard for a child when we tell a child to do something like, " Pick up your toys."

We make things harder in our own minds when we are self-willed rather than seeking to have the mind of Christ.

Joseph is earning honor to his name by humbling himself to avoid strife and simply yielding.

I hope we can be inspired to do the same.

We should be Christ-like examples and even a fool is esteemed as wise when he holds his peace... How much more should we who are taught of God be able to hold our tongue from strife.

I shared this musing with my Mother and this was her response:

"I'm 74 and still trying to learn that, unfortunately! If only I had learned it as a child. And held onto it. Because actually, I did learn it as a child. We certainly were not allowed to disobey our parents.

That’s something that really bugs me about some kids today. They seem to treat their parents with such disrespect and parents seem to accept that as normal!"

As adults and even as older siblings, we have the opportunity to restore what is being lost in society, by teaching children it's not ok to talk back, argue, and disrespect their elders (those older than them). We are actually instructed by those of Old to submit to one another "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." Ephesians 5:21

We should not only respect the aged but one another also.