Proverbs 25: 21-22 “21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; 22 For you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.”

HATRED VS KINDNESS

I recently read a little poem that describes our passage today.

“By heaping coals of fire upon its head:

In the kind warmth the metal learns to glow,

And pure from dross the silver runs below.” S. Wesley.

Those words describe exactly how we are to treat our enemies.  We are to treat them with kindness so that they may learn to glow.  Our light (Christ’s light) can shine through us and cause them to glow.  What a blessed thought.  But it isn’t easy.

TEACHING MOMENT

Your children will encounter enemies during their life.  Now they may not be life threatening enemies, but they will cause your children grief.  Teaching our children how to handle these individuals is a life skill that is so important.

They should pray for their enemy.  They should seek ways to bless their enemy.  They should repay cursings with blessings.  It won’t be easy for your children.  They will still shed tears.  But by allowing themselves to be intimidated or scared by their enemies, they give them all the power over them.  Don’t let that happen.

Parents, are you allowing the Lord to love your enemies through you?  How can you turn all the anger they have for you into love for them?  Your children are watching (and learning) from you.  They will observe your actions toward people they know don’t like you.  Show them how to do it Christ-like, not the way you want to do it.  Then “the Lord will reward you.”