Sometimes there are not words to express exactly what you are thinking or the energy to put them on paper - or into cyberspace. Our family lost a loved one, and .....
Yesterday the last line of Smith's entry stuck with me all day: Compassionate exceptions to obedience are not to be compared with calculated deviations from obedience. Somehow it reminded me that God knows the heart, and sometimes we cannot fulfill our intentions or commitments, but God knows our heart. I am so glad that God knows our heart, that when people don't understand or misunderstand, he does....and sometimes that has to be enough.
Today's passage dealt with Dealing With Discrepancy from Numbers 8:23-25, but what stuck with me is derived from these lines: "They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the Tent of the Meeting, but they themselves must not do the work."
In the margin, I wrote: Doing, Teaching, Discipling, Coaching - God's plan. I know that was not the emphasis in this passage, but it seemed to be illustrating this principle. As young men, the Levites learned and then exercised their responsibilities. As older men, they were to help the younger men learn - not by doing it, but by telling them how and coaching them as the younger men did it.
God's design: I think we call it mentoring....and as simple as it is on paper, it is a challenge to exercise it. We find it difficult to ask the questions, to ask for help....and the older people find it difficult to get involved, to offer their help....and what a mess we make of things when we fail to do it God's way.
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