Last night as my daughter and I were going through our bed time routine; she has me read her as many books as I allow and I read my one devotional thought. I had been asking a specific question of God earlier in the day, and it seemed the topic I was reading, was just the answer to my question. I became overwhelmed as I read the devotion, along with all the supporting scriptures. My daughter realizing that there was a change in my voice came over and asked me what was wrong. I couldn’t really verbalize it to her, so it was simpler to just tell her that I was sad – which wasn’t far from the truth. She came and brought me a tissue and proceeded to give me a hug, and provide comfort.
A few minutes after, as it was already late I told her it was bed time. She had enough energy that you would have thought it was 10am, and not 10pm. I forcibly took away whatever toy she was playing with. She started crying, went down to the other end of the bed and told me that I had hurt her feelings. I simply left her alone because I did not know what she wanted. I know what I wanted – for her to go to bed. Shortly after, she said she was mad at me. When I questioned why, she said that when I was sad, she came over and took care of me – and when she was, I didn’t do anything. I honestly didn’t even know what was expected of me.
This morning I woke up to the scripture from 2 Corinthians 1:3-4NIV: “ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
It appears my daughter had already received this lesson long before me. We are given compassion and comfort from God, with an expectation that it is our job to pass that comfort to others. A lesson I’m learning is that when we are blessed, it is not for us to keep our blessings to ourselves – we are to share that blessing with others.
I pray that the next time my daughter tells me that I’ve hurt her feelings, no matter how little I think I’ve really done towards it, that I actually figure out a way to provide her comfort. But not just to her, but because of all that God has done for me, that I am able to pay attention to the needs of those around me.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the comfort you provide to us. Lord, help us to remember that it’s not for us to keep those comforts for ourselves, but to bless others and to see the needs of those around us.