Attitude of Gratitude
📖Daily Reading
Genesis 26-36
🎥 Video
Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.
📝 Reflection
Genesis 32: 9-12
'Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my grandfather Abraham, and God of my father, Isaac—O Lord , you told me, ‘Return to your own land and to your relatives.’ And you promised me, ‘I will treat you kindly.’ I am not worthy of all the unfailing love and faithfulness you have shown to me, your servant. When I left home and crossed the Jordan River, I owned nothing except a walking stick. Now my household fills two large camps! O Lord , please rescue me from the hand of my brother, Esau. I am afraid that he is coming to attack me, along with my wives and children. But you promised me, ‘I will surely treat you kindly, and I will multiply your descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore—too many to count.’” '
Ok, we are going to zoom out to get a big picture reflection. This is one thing of many things I love about reading the Bible. It really is a psychology handbook and practical life manual! The more you read it the more you ‘see’ it. Today I read chapters 26-36, which is basically the story of Jacob. I will do my best to sum up so that the ‘attitude of gratitude’ will make more sense as the topic of my reflection today. I am going to give a very high level summary to set the stage.
Jacob was one of two brothers similar his predecessors even back to Cain and Abel. The parallels continue. Jacob is the younger brother to Essau, sons of Issac and Rebekah. Essau was the more ‘manly’ of the two, a burly, strong hunter type. One day after a long day of hunting Essau came home famished. Jacob took advantage of the situation and strategically asked Essau to give him his birthrights in exchange for his own of soup. Essau being the more ‘simple’ and short sighted of the two agreed. Much like Cain, he represents the ‘lower’ man within us all.
Isaac their father, is getting older and had gone blind and has decided he is ready to give Essau his blessing. Rebekah hears about this, and since Jacob is her favorite son, she devises a plan for Jacob to receive this blessing instead of Essau. This plan succeeds and Essau not only loses his birthright but now also his father’s blessing to his younger brother Jacob. The ‘higher’ self within.
Jacob then leaves home and goes back to his fathers homeland in search of a wife. He meets Rachel and falls in love almost instantly. Her father is his uncle Laban. He asks Laban for permission to marry Rachel. Laban agrees only if Jacob will work for him for seven years. He is so in love that it is worth it. Seven years passes and it is time to marry Rachel. At the last minute, Laban deceives him and has him sleep with her sister, his other daughter Leah. Then insists that Jacob marry Leah instead. Jacob is understandably upset, but quickly accepts his situation. Works out a deal to still marry Rachel by agreeing to work for Laban for seven more years. So then he is married to both Leah and Rachel and in servitude to Laban for seven more years.
At the end of fourteen years, he asks for permission to leave and be on his own. He reminds Laban how his wealth has grown because of his service. Laban wants to pay him, but Jacob interestingly refuses and enters into an agreement regarding the flocks of animals. Agreeing to take only the spotted and speckled ones. He has a plan to cause newborn animals to have spots which will increase his flocks. This is a not only a laborious process but a time consuming one. Which commits him to six more years with Laban for a total of 20 years.
Meanwhile he has had children by both Rachel and Leah and both of their servants. I am obviously giving a very cliff notes version of the story. Another interesting parallel story that I took note of was between Leah and Rachel. There was a lot of competition and jealousy between the two reminiscent of Sarai and Hagar. Rachel had a hard time conceiving, while Leah was very fertile. One day Leah had picked some mandrakes and Rachel wanted them. Jacob loved Rachel not Leah, which hurt Leah. In this scenario, Rachel used this and offered an opportunity for Leah to be intimate with Jacob if she would give her the mandrakes. Another example of willingness to bargain one’s integrity and values. 📝
Ok, so back to the main character story of Jacob. He is finally headed out to make his own way and have God’s promise fulfilled. Prior to going to Haran-Padam where Labon was he had a dream or vision about a stairway to heaven and angels going up and down and God spoke to him and made a similar promise to the ones made to Isaac about being a nation and having more descendants than could be counted. So the time has come, but on the road he gets a message that his brother Essau is headed to meet him with 400 men.
The last time he saw Essau he was very mad, so understandably he was afraid. So he split up his large caravan of family, servants and flocks. Jic it went badly at least half of his ‘empire’ would be saved. Before he meets Essau he says the prayer highlighted in the scripture today. “ I am not worthy of all the unfailing love and faithfulness you have shown to me, your servant. When I left home and crossed the Jordan River, I owned nothing except a walking stick. Now my household fills two large camps! ..”
This really struck me! Jacob could have chosen to be focused on the way that Laban had treated him and kept breaking his word, changing the rules of the game and having had to spend twenty years in servitude. I know that is what I was thinking as I was reading. But he didn’t he dealt with the hand he was dealt, he adjusted and moved on. Not only that but stayed in humble gratitude. He kept in mind where he came from.
It got me thinking maybe this is what the birthright and the father’s blessing is. Not just for Jacob but for all of us. We have control of our hearts, our minds, our thoughts and our attitudes. This is what creates our experience and our reality. Thins that happen, what other people do or don’t do are just things that happen and things that people do. It is how we react, what judgements we make, the thoughts that we have that determine our experience. Will we suffer, be angry, be ‘righteously’ bitter? Or will we choose to grateful. Choose to see that life is happing FOR us, not against or to us. Which will remind us that God is FOR us, and is always blessing us, He is not against us. Only we can be against ourselves with our thoughts and attitude. Something to think about 💭
✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt
Have you held onto past hurts, betrayals and unfair treatment? How can you let those go and even recognize God’s blessing in all of it?
📖Tomorrows Reading
Genesis 37-50
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