It's Not Mine!

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The other day, I asked my children to help clean the house.  As they were cleaning, I continued to hear them use a phrase over and over again.  When I asked one of them to pick up a particular toy, their response would be, "It's not mine.  I'm not doing it."  The defiance surprised me, as my children normally are very helpful.  I began to pray about the situation. 

Later in the afternoon, I started hanging up my husband's dress shirts, still thinking about my children's lack of cooperation.  Suddenly, an image of Jesus on the cross appeared in my mind with the caption, "It's Not Mine."  I paused at the enormity of the image. I gathered my thoughts and then called my children together.  I asked them if they ever noticed me picking up items around the house that were not my own, to which they nodded their heads.  I then asked them why they thought I did these things.  My daughter replied that it was because I loved them.  As I affirmed her answer, I took a few minutes to further explain that I clean up other people's messes because Jesus cleaned up my ultimate mess through the cross.  In that moment, my children started understanding that as Christians, we are asked to take on things that are not ours because of what Jesus did for us. 

John 13:34-35

 34 “I give you a new commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.”


colorful images | Full color painting of Jesus on the cross by Simon Bisley - Simon ...:

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