Day 17--Are you like Joseph or his brothers?

'But his brothers, seeing how much more his father loved him than all his other sons, came to hate him so much that they could not say a civil word to him.'

GENESIS 37: 4

Oh boy... haven't we heard this before! We all know that super annoying person who we don't ever want to talk to, right? Well, when you read  the story of Joseph, you see that Joseph was actually a really nice guy!! His brothers, though... YIKES!!!

And sometimes we act like Joseph's brothers. Out of jealousy, envy, or simply misunderstandings we decide that we don't like so-and-so and we are mean and even cruel. We cut them off. We gossip about them. We are rude. And sometimes... well we even try to deliberately hurt them.

When you read Joseph's story, don't you just want to say "UGH, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU GUYS!! YOU ARE JUST HORRIBLE PEOPLE!!!!"

Think about that next time you are about to be mean to a person. I know it's hard. But... 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. Remember words kill. When we do these things we are letting pride take over us--we believe ourselves to be better than others.

May the Lord help us be more like Joseph and less like his brothers. May He who is humble help us be humble, like Joseph, so that we may accept people as they are.