GOD IS SMARTER THAN WE ARE. THAT’S WHY WE’RE SMART WHEN WE DO WHAT HE COMMANDS.
Bible Reading of the Day: Read Isaiah 40:28-31.
Verse of the Day: “Have you never heard or understood? Don’t you know that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding” (Isaiah 40:28).
Marcy held her math textbook in her hand as she approached her dad. “Daddy, can you please help me with my math homework?” she asked.
Dad said, “Let’s find Mom. She’s better at math than I am.”
Dad and Marcy showed Mom the math problems. “Oh, I see,” she said, after a quick glance at the book. “This shouldn’t be too hard for you, Marcy. Didn’t your teacher explain this in class?”
Marcy shook her head sheepishly. “Beeler and I sort of missed that part,” she explained, referring to her best friend, Nancy Beeler. “We got sent to the office for copying each other’s homework.”
“You what?!” Mom and Dad said in unison.
Marcy raised her hands defensively. “We couldn’t finish it in time,” she explained. “So I told her to do the first twenty problems and I did the last twenty problems. Then we just shared our answers with each other. I figured it wouldn’t be so wrong, just this once, since we meant to do the homework.”
Mom and Dad stared at Marcy for a few moments before Mom spoke. “Don’t you think you went to the wrong person?”
Marcy looked confused for a moment. “What, you mean Daddy? That’s why he said we should find you, ’cause you’re better at math than he is.”
“That’s not what I mean. I’m talking about when you ‘decided’ it wouldn’t be so wrong to cheat just this once,” Mom said.
“Oh,” Marcy said. She blushed. “I see what you mean. I tried to say it would be OK just this once, instead of… instead of remembering that only God gets to decide what’s right or wrong.”
“Whenever you do that, sweetie, you’re bound to do the wrong thing,” Mom said.
“Yeah,” Marcy said. “If I were doing the right thing, I wouldn’t have tried to make my own decision, huh?”
Mom smiled and nodded. Dad placed a hand on Marcy’s shoulder. “God’s smarter than any of us, Marcy. That’s why we need to do what he says.”
“Yeah, just like Mom’s better than you at math, right, Dad?”
“Yeah,” Dad answered. “Just like that.”
TO DISCUSS: Who do you go to when you need help? Why do you go to that person? When do you seek God’s help?
TO PRAY: “Lord, help us to remember to come to you when we need help in making a decision.”
