Daily PresenceSample

My dad was always good about giving advice. He has lived a life full of various experiences and he often has a good perspective or insight to offer when it comes to asking for help. Even now, I occasionally call my dad to ask about issues relating to maintaining my vehicles, building things, or other dad type stuff. However, I wasn’t always so keen to listen. As a kid, more specifically a teenager, I often went to my dad asking for advice. Yet, oftentimes, the advice wasn’t what I wanted to hear, so I would just do what I thought was best anyways. My dad would shrug and say, “It’s your choice, but I don’t think you should.” Then, later once I had made a bigger mess of things, I would hang my head and return to my father looking for help. This time, for real. More often than not, he would smile, laugh, and maybe even poke fun a bit. Yet, he was always willing to help me fix it.

King Rehoboam seems to be making the same mistake I did as a young man. Despite the wise counsel of those around him, the men who had been advisors to his father, Rehoboam chooses to listen to his friends and those he grew up with. Therefore, rather than seek the humility of experience, he chooses to exercise the pride of his youth. By doing so, his people turned against him.

This lesson is one that I must remind myself of each day. “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” or, as we see in Psalms: “A soft word turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Whether it is through gentleness or harshness, our words have the power to influence those around us. Either out of affection or fear. Let us choose to let our tongues produce honey rather than vinegar so that we may bring more people into our circle of influence rather than casting them out.