The Power of Grace and Moving On

This is pretty elementary, but the way I think.  From Deuteronomy 8:2-5 I drew some thoughts worth writing about for me. 

 I frequently tend to go to the everyday happenings in the lives of people I read about. How did they provide for their needs? How did they make their clothes? How did they deal with sickness and injuries. Well, according to these verses, they didn't? The Lord was providing for them. Their clothes didn't fall apart with wear and tear. Their feet were healthy. Having dealt with some unhappy feet the last few months, this is a big deal to me. Did they not have injuries? It almost sounds like they were protected in that regard and enjoyed good health. This is huge!

And the question comes up. Did they know the Lord was doing these things? Does a small child know that Mom and Dad are caring for their every need? No, they don't. And the forty years in the wilderness was so they could see the hand of the Lord in their lives and learn to worship Him for his goodness and his daily care. Awesome!

Now one more insight into this story. Forty years. That's not quite the amount of time we have been married. So all the time the children of those who were slaves would have been having families, raising them and seeing them move on to have families of their own. Grandchildren were brought into the mix, and they were taught the things of God. The grandparents aged and died, leaving the new generation to carry on. Were these new generations more aware of God? Certainly they had never known slavery and the way their parents lived prior to wandering in the wilderness. They never knew the deprevation of living in slavery and being oppressed. Did they understand? Well, eventually they did, because they were allowed to move on.

So the question is asked: What connection do I see between Deuteronomy 6:5-6 and Matthew 22:35-40? The manual pretty much spoon feeds the answer to this question, but it is obviously LOVE GOD! Love Him with all my mind, heart and soul. Never forget His influence in my life. Ah! And remember to Love His children. This is the ongoing challenge. We are human and sometimes, people will get under our skin. One lesson I learned in our study in the past few years was the power of Grace. I believe Brad Wilcox spoke of it in a devotional at BYU that was epic. Sometimes, we just "give it to people". We don't engage in talking of the difference—especially when it is of something that is totally not of an eternal consequence. We do our best to set a righteous example. We are strong in our determination to live as God has asked us, but we don't force it on others. We walk away from potential conflict; change the subject and forgive. Move on!