Daily Inspiration

Jesus said to his Apostles: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple–amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.” When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.”—Matthew 10:34-11:1

To the uninitiated, this seems a harsh teaching, but for the faithful Christian it describes a perfectly ordered life. A man will say, ‘I want this, yet the Lord wants me to have something else, so I will give myself that which the Lord wants.’ His wife will say, ‘I want this,’ yet the Lord wants her to have something else, so the man gives her the better that God wants. His children will say, ‘I want this,’ and again the Lord will want something better, so the man gives them instead what God wants for them.

It isn’t because the man hates his family that he places God first; it is because helping his family live in God’s will is the highest form of love he can offer both the Lord and his family.

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