Jimbo's Jots

For our graduates this year, we asked the church leadership and the parents along with myself to write a “blessing” for the students. I only gave a brief explanation of what would be included in the blessing. It is based on the book, The Blessing by John Trent (@DrJohnTrent) and Gary Smalley (@GaryTSmalley). Over the next several weeks, I want to take some time to review the book and offer my perspective, to go deeper in to the importance a blessing can have on a child from the parent. So, we begin . . .

One of the first stories we read of a blessing is in Genesis 27, Esau and Jacob. Trent and Smalley open up the first chapter reflecting on this story. When we read through the story typically, we focus on the fact that Rebekah helped Jacob steal the blessing. For Dr. Trent, who preparing for a Sunday Bible class after a day of clinical work at a psychiatric hospital, the story jumped out from a different angle.

Dr. Trent had spent the day with a young man who was a suicide watch after the pressure of not meeting academic expectations set by himself through his father. The pressure was so great! The young man would be receiving a “B” in a required PE class because he had missed to many class sessions after becoming ill and there was no way to make up the missed time and no extra credit offered. So, he was stuck with a “B”. So, this young man misses out on the “blessing” he would have received from his father, but instead is suffering through a sense of detachment.

Much like this young man, Esau struggled with the detachment of losing the blessing. He cried, “Bless me — meet, my father!” (Genesis 27:34) The pain, then, he experienced for the rest of his life was not just in the deception he fell victim. He also struggled with the pain of missing out on what his father could have done for him emotionally. “‘Do you have only one blessing, my father! Blesss me too, my father!’ The Esau wept aloud.” (Genesis 37:28)

Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore this concept of “blessing”. I invite you to come with me on this journey as I discover or maybe even rediscover some of my own perspective on the “blessing”.