From The Pastor’s Pen – By Brian Horrobin
Someone once said, “Half of our problems come from wanting our own way. The other half come from getting it.”
Or consider the boy and his sister riding the same hobby horse.
The boy says to her, “If one of us would just get off this hobby horse there would be more room for me.”
If you don’t think society is filled with people in love with themselves then just think about the most popular photo of our time, the “selfie.”
If narcissism was a university degree we would be a society of Rhodes scholars!
It has been reported that one of President Teddy Roosevelt’s children once said about him, “Father always wanted to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral.”
This type of thinking is quite the opposite of what the Bible teaches.
Romans 12:10 says, “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honour giving preference to one another.”
How’s that going for you, anyway?
Is your first instinct to look after yourself, or to try to consider the need of someone else?
Honestly, it takes a concerted effort to put others first because we are so used to wanting our own way so much of the time.
My pastor once told me at the beginning of my marriage over 25 years ago that having children would help cure me of selfishness.
I’m not sure the job is near completion yet, but I have certainly realized that you can’t be selfish and still take care of your children properly.
I want to challenge you this week to look for opportunities to give preference to another person.
It might mean stopping to talk with a lonely senior, or letting someone with fewer groceries move ahead of you in the checkout line.
You might even want to surprise the person behind you in the drive-through by paying for their order.
Go ahead, you have nothing to lose!
