My children, mother, and I attended what we thought was a book sale.
A local organization opened up its book warehouse and invited the public to shop. There was a catch though–all the books were free!
I had to double check to make sure I heard correctly. “Excuse me! What did you say?” To my astonishment, he responded with, “Yes, they are free. Please take as many as you want.” This explains why I saw people hauling off cartloads of books when we entered.
Flashback to my Childhood
While looking through the children’s section, I came across a book from my childhood. I remember having reading time every afternoon when I was in daycare. The teacher always asked which books we wanted to read along with the ones she had already chosen.
One day there was a new teacher leading our reading time. I raised my hand and told her I wanted to read The Stupids. (Obviously, it’s not an intellectual book but more of slapstick kid humor.)
“Excuse me! What did you say?”
Taken aback she said, “Excuse me! What did you say?”
My four year old self replied, “The Stupids! I want to read The Stupids.”
Instead of understanding that The Stupids was a book series, she thought I called her stupid. She immediately sent me to time out. That was the first time I’d ever been to time out and I was humiliated. I remember trying to explain myself but she wouldn’t listen.
The Spiritual Take-Away
As followers of Christ, we often have both of these situations happen when we are sharing Christ’s amazing gift with others.
Some joyfully accept Christ’s free gift of salvation and fill up with all of Christ they can get. While others completely misunderstand our intention and love for them and reject what we have to offer.
Our role as Christ’s followers is to continue to share. We should not feel humiliated when our words aren’t accepted. The apostles rejoiced in being told not to talk about Jesus anymore, being beaten, and thrown into jail.
“The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.”
Prayer over your Heart
Lord, we praise you for the amazing gift of redemption and forgiveness we have in Jesus Christ! We thank you for your boldness in sending Jesus from heaven, knowing that he would be rejected by your own creation. We pray that as we share this amazing gift with others you will give us the courage to do it boldly. Help us not be afraid of those who reject your gift.
Although it breaks our hearts when others choose to reject you, help us realize that our job is to simply share you with others no matter their reaction. We pray for hearts all around the world to be open to you. We pray for those who despise you right now. Show yourselves to them in a way that opens their eyes and hearts to you. We pray that one day they will be our brothers and sisters in Christ and truly take hold of this marvelous gift of eternal life you have given us.
In the One who sacrificed himself to make this possible – Amen!
Who in your life right now can we pray to come to know Christ?
Send us an email or comment below and we will start praying for them.
I am a mother of 5 crazy, homeschooling children ages 10 & under, wife to an amazing man, and daughter of the King of the Universe!I enjoy reading, making my kids laugh, cooking, all things natural, learning to play guitar and dusting off my piano skills.One day I hope to run again, but until then I’m learning patience.
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- Are You Willing to Be Humiliated? - December 9, 2019
Great thoughts, Kristi! I love your childhood example. Thanks for sharing. – Amy
http://stylingrannymama.com/
This is such a hard lesson to learn for me. It both hurts my heart and, sometimes, embarrasses me. I have to constantly remind myself that it even happened to the disciples and that they were to dust their feet off and move onto the next town. I have to constantly remind myself that Christ himself could not speak in his own hometown and be heard.
This reminds me that salvation is a free gift. Sometimes we lose the astonishment we should have over that, but God doesn’t give us what we deserve, He gave us Christ.
Amen! I would love to bring my sister into a relationship with God and often quote scripture to her or give her ways she could handle situations with more grace and love because she is so loved. She goes back and forth, but has never fully gotten into religion or given herself to God. I pray that one day the free gift we have all been given can be felt and accepted by my sister.