Jimbo's Jots

And we’re back! Thanks for the break! I know I had not been writing for very long, but life got crazy busy. Daughter #1 got married! Daughter #2 went off to college! Daughter #3 started high school!

So, here we are . . . stuck somewhere in the middle of The Blessing by Trent and Smalley. Let us do a quick recap. The basic premise is the importance of a blessing being given to our children. We have looked at Genesis 37 where Jacob receives Esau’s blessing by way of deception on the part of Momma Rachel. We recounted the desperation Esau had when he finds out that he would not receive the blessing from his father.

We looked at the importance of a blessing from a parent to a child for the well being of the child. There are feelings of acceptance that the child experiences. There are feelings of affirmation that give confidence to our children to be able to accomplish what they set their minds to do.

To continue then, I want to look at another verse in the Bible to shed some more light on this topic. Fast forward to 400+ years after Isaac, Jacob and Esau. We have now set our camp up with Israel. The wandering Israel. The Israel that have not yet taken the Promised Land because of their lack of faith.

This is what God tells them.

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)

God says, “You have a couple of choices. Life or death. Blessing or curses. It’s in your hands. If you choose life and blessing, then it will be for you, your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren . . . ”

Unpacking that a little bit, we find that it’s really more about adding or subtracting. Trent and Smalley discuss this further in the book. Whether a life or death, there is movement toward or away from something. When we choose life, we add life to the relationship. When we choose death, we are taking away from life especially in our relationships.

Blessing and cursing are similar by adding or taking away life. One of the words used for blessing is introduces the idea of a camel bowing for his master in order for the master to ride. By “bowing” in our blessing, we communicate value to our children. A second word picture used with blessing is the thought of adding weight as coins to a scale. So, in our blessing, we say, “You are highly valued and I want to add to your life.”

Curse is the very opposite of the blessing. The literal meaning for the word curse here is the form a “trickle of water” by building a dam. As wilderness wanderers and because of their need for water, Israel would understand this. What God tells them that when we curse someone we literally cut off their water supply. For parents, when we fail offer a blessing, we literally shut our children down. We take away for their feelings of value.

For me (Trent and Smalley bring this up), it brings new meaning to Jesus’ offer of “living water” to the woman in John 4. Jesus was never about cursing someone only offering a blessing.

Next week, we’ll be looking at the five elements of the blessing. Be blessed and be a blessing!