Hard to believe that it was just a week ago that I wrote those words. Our week of vacation was anything but refreshing. Yet God was at work teaching me in the midst of it. On Monday, my first day of vacation, I read these words from Job 4, spoken by Eliphaz to Job:
4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. 5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.
Eliphaz is saying, 'You have all the right words to comfort those who are in affliction, but now that the tables have turned on you, you aren't heeding your own advice.' These were challenging words to me. I can speak at length about the sovereignty of God, and God's loving purposes in suffering. But do I heed my own advice when some trouble comes my way?I had a test in this during my vacation week, as I had to deal with some small pain, not nearly the magnitude that I have helped others through: sickness. Halle was the worst-hit, having pink eye in both eyes and ear infections in both ears. But Felicity got a cold too, and then Michelle and I got it from them later in the week. Between dealing with our sick kids and struggling with our own colds, it was not a fun week. A few times, I felt compelled to take the advice of this 'stress reduction kit'!
But I was grateful that at the beginning of that week, God knew I would need a reminder to heed my own advice. While I had moments during the week in which I struggled, this passage of Scripture was a comfort and a help. His lesson was clear:
To counsel others, you need to start by taking your own advice.
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