Family DRAMA

 I woke up this morning thinking about family drama, and as I read the text for today I began to think about my childhood and how hard it was growing up the younger brother of my siblings. I like Joseph during many times in my life was accused of tattle-telling on my sisters and like Joseph I got in trouble with them for telling the truth on them to our parents. Have you ever gotten mad at a sibling  for tattle-telling on you or were you the one doing all the telling and your siblings got you back in their own way? In today's text 17yr old Joseph upsets his brothers 1st because he tells on them and 2nd because he has dreams about what God has called him to. Has anyone in your family ever told you what you can't be or can't accomplish? Has anyone ever told you that you are crazy for thinking you can become or achieve something special? If so, then you know exactly how Joseph felt. Today's text reminds us that despite our family drama God still has a plan for us and when others say we can't God says that we can! Prayerfully the story of Joseph will provide encouragement for you as it has for me.

Genesis 37

New International Version (NIV)

Joseph’s Dreams

37 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

² This is the account of Jacob’s family line.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate  robe for him. ⁴ When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

⁵ Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. ⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷ We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
⁸ His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
⁹ Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
¹⁰ When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” ¹¹ His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Dear God please never let us get discouraged enough to believe the Nay-Sayers in our lives, and to trust and believe in our God given dreams and gifts. This precious prayer we intrust to you. Amen.

Until Friday, Be Well, P.J.