Moses prayed for Pharaoh, but it didn’t mean they became BFFs. Forgiveness isn’t the same as friendship. Yet, we still need to forgive.

I asked my pastor last week, tongue-in-cheek, if we could please stop picking devotional/sermon topics that smack me upside the head. This week’s topic, as you know, is forgiveness. I had the opportunity this morning to show forgiveness when I was grumpy and didn’t want to.

Let’s begin at about 11:30pm last night, when I finally came to a stopping point on my term paper and decided to go to bed. Granted, it was my own fault for staying up so late, but once I went to bed, I had a difficult time going to sleep. (It couldn’t have been the diet soda I’d been drinking all night?!?) I finally drifted off a little past midnight, I suppose.

Then, at 2:15am, I was woken up by the soft click of a door opening and closing somewhere in the house. (As an aside, what is it about moms’ ears such that the slightest off-kilter sound can wake us up from a deep sleep?) I listened for a moment,thinking perhaps one of the boys just needed to go to the bathroom. A minute or two later, I heard another door close–this time, not so discreetly–followed by voices chit-chatting.

I was livid. In true Angry Mom fashion, I grabbed my glasses from the bedside and practically stomped down the hallway to investigate. Sure enough, Nos. 1 & 3 were watching tv in the extra bedroom and talking as if it were the middle of the afternoon. I ordered them both back to bed and told No. 1 that he was grounded.

No sooner had I finally started to drift off to sleep again, No. 4 came crying into the room, saying that he was scared. No. 3 must have inadvertently woken him up when he went back to bed. He eventually settled down and went back to sleep. I have no idea what time it was, at this point, but I knew then that it would be a lonnnnng Monday.

[Later] This morning, No. 1 sulked about being grounded, and I told him in no uncertain terms that I was not pleased that he woke up two of his brothers and me. He told me, “Fine, bye,” and walked out to catch the bus. He didn’t even say, “I love you,” and he always says that. 😦

Wouldn’t you know … he missed the bus. He needed a ride to school and I needed to go to work a little early today, so I drove him. We had a chance to talk in the car and start over with both of our attitudes. By the time I dropped him off, we were squared away and ready for a new day. Reconciling with my son over something that should have been a mere frustration but just seemed to compound as the hours passed was a refreshing way to start my day. I’m still tired, though.

(P.S. Idk why the paragraphs keep getting scrunched … I’ve tried adding extra line breaks and even pasting from Word, but it doesn’t seem to help.)

The Bible says that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. Spend time today thinking about the calluses on your own heart; ask God to soften them.

Pharaoh wanted forgiveness for selfish reasons; he didn’t really want to let Moses go. When have you ever apologized without meaning it?

The forced apology: it’s one of those classic, I-can’t-believe-I’ve-turned-into-my-mother scenarios that most parents have tried. Two kids are bickering, and a parent intervenes, telling the troublemaker to apologize. Cross-armed and scrunched nose, the kid yells, “I’m SORRY!” with no inkling of remorse.

We can make them say it, but we can’t make them mean it. We can even make the other one comply with an obligatory, “I forgive you,” but we can’t make them mean it, either. Remorse and forgiveness are choices that we have to make for ourselves. Let’s look at a couple of what-not-to-do stories from the Old Testament about asking for and receiving forgiveness:

Pharaoh had a knack for saying one thing and doing another. Check out the story in Exodus for the full scoop, but suffice it to say that he was pretty indecisive. He would tell Moses that he and his people could leave Egypt, but as soon as they left he’d send soldiers chasing after them to bring them back. He begged Moses to ask God’s forgiveness so that the plagues would stop, then he would reject God and refuse to let Moses go [again]. Moses was faithful to intercede for Pharaoh, but Pharaoh kept digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole of deceit, which ultimately cost him everything he held dear.

Back up a few chapters to the end of Genesis and consider the story of Joseph. This was a guy whose jealous brothers threw him into a pit, sold him into slavery, then faked his death. Years [and many more trials] later, Joseph was faced with a choice during a devastating famine: deny his brothers food and let them die for what they did to him, or forgive and save them. He chose to let go of the grudge, but even after the family was reunited and reconciled, Joseph’s brothers still doubted whether he really meant it. They suspected that as soon as their father died, Joseph might renege on his offer. See how he responded in Genesis 50:19 (NIV): “But Joseph said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?’” Joseph knew that God is the judge; his job was just to forgive.

So, we are faced with a choice: Do we give God lip-service and tell him we’re sorry, when we don’t really mean it? Or, will we fess up to our shortcomings and accept his forgiveness?

Thank God in advance today for being able to handle your burdens. What are you still hesitant to relinquish to his care?

Our society isn’t as agrarian as it used to be, but pray today for family farms & family businesses and ask God to bless their work.

The next time you eat out, pray for the people who prepared your meal. Thank God for his provision that allowed you to buy such food.

Hunger remains a terrible problem in the world. Pray today for people in our community & globally who are hungry. Ask God how you can help.

Be it a third helping at dinner, the newest gizmo, etc: what can we learn from depriving ourselves of something we don’t really need?