Don’t make me use your middle name

Theme: Don’t make me use your middle name

Verse: If God be for us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31)

How many of you got the lecture at home when you did something that embarrassed your parents? At my house such a lecture started something like this,

“David Bernard Schapiro, whatever possessed you to do such a thing?”

These lectures usually include some semblance of this phrase.

“That was really embarrassing. Don’t you know who you represent (typically implying our family)?”

Over the years, hopefully I have gotten a little less embarrassing to my family. (I guess my sister Beth will have to be the ultimate judge of that since she’s one of the only a few people on the planet that has known me since birth.)

All that aside, there is one family we all share in representing. That is the family of God. It may sound like a great responsibility (which it is), but what if we choose to look at it as an opportunity?

Yes, an opportunity!

It does not matter where we are, we are always representing who (and whose) we are. And people are always going judge how us by how we react to the good and the bad through the lens of our Judeo-Christian faith.

Not always the easiest of tasks, I will grant you.

But in Deuteronomy there is a great verse for these situations. “For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.” (Deuteronomy 20:4)

There is plenty in this world that can cause us to seek battle over collaboration. But when the feeling strikes to doing something that will embarrass our family like fighting back out of revenge, remember who gives you the strength in battle and let Him guide you.

And don’t make God have to use your middle name!

Have a GREAT week!

Adapted from Lead with Faith, Play with Purpose by Andy Dooley