Me:  Howdy, Prodigal!

 

Prodigal:  Howdy, I was just playing with this toy that my friend left in the car.

 

Me:  Toys can be fun but what do we do when they are broken?

 

Prodigal:  I don’t know.

 

Me:  Well let me share what Peter Marshall liked to share.

 

Suppose a child has a broken toy.

He brings the toy to his father, saying that he himself has tried to fix it and has failed.

He asks his father to do it for him.

The father gladly agrees…

takes the toy…

and begins to work.

Now obviously the father can do his work most quickly and easily if the child makes no attempt to interfere, simply sits quietly watching, or even goes about other business, with never a doubt that the toy is being successfully mended.

But what do most of God’s children do in such a situation?

Often we stand by offering a lot of meaningless advice and some rather silly criticism.

We even get impatient and try to help,

and so get our hand in the Father’s way,

generally hindering the work…

Finally, in our desperation, we may even grab the toy out of the Father’s hands entirely, saying rather bitterly that we hadn’t really thought He could fix it anyway…that we’d given Him a chance and He had failed us.

Hebrew 11:6

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

 

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org