February 14

Today's reading: Numbers 13, 14, 15; Psalm 14, 44, 74, 104, 134; Proverbs 14

Numbers 13:23, "And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs."

Today is Valentine's day. It is a day of love and all the such things. At this writing my wife and I did not even get one another a card (this is unusual). It was just agreed between both of us that we would skip the cards. She did not want to cry at the mushy card and I did not want to spend the money to buy the cards. We were totally in agreement on this subject.

As I was reading our text for today I was thinking about unity. My wife and I were unified in our decision not to spend money on mushy cards. In our text today the one's who carried the cluster of grapes were in unity also. They had to work together to get the cluster of grapes carried back to camp.

Notice the words, "they bare it between two upon a staff". There are times where we need to bare things between us and there are times that we need to not share some burdens so we don't overload our spouse. There are many things over the years that I wished I would have kept my big mouth shut and bare my own burdens. I hope that I am not one of those people that you dread to talk to because all they can talk about is their "burdens" or ills.

So many people worry and fret over things they cannot change. This is not a good response. We need to be still before God and let Him tell us what He wants us to do about things. Notice Numbers 13:30-31, "And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we." We are able to overcome if we do it in the power of God. We need to not burden our spouse with things but take them to the Lord. Maybe, we need to take them to the Lord as a couple too.

I think the first place that we need to start is in prayer asking for forgiveness. Notice the words of Numbers 14:19, "Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now." Where did they start? They started with forgiveness for the entire nation. Some of us need to get things right with others. Maybe we need to go to a family member and ask for forgiveness or a fellow Church member. Just maybe we need to go to a spouse and ask for forgiveness. You know what you need to do so get busy.

So, how was your Valentine's Day? Was it a day of love or a day of sweeping conflict and whatever is weighing you down under the rug?