05.10.02

(Today’s devotional was written by my son, Clark Wrather. Clark is the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Broken Bow, Oklahoma.)

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. - 1 Corinthians 3:9-10.

Not too long ago, after getting home from work, I put some time into the yard. Fire ants were invading again, weeds needed to be sprayed, shrubs and trees needed to be trimmed, stuff needed to be burned, and the yard needed to be mowed. My son, Madison, wanted to help me do all of these things.

Most of the time while I was mowing, he pushed his plastic mower right along beside mine. We mowed the front yard together. He helped me gather sticks to burn, watched me sprinkle the pellets of death around the fire ants, and helped drag off the things I had trimmed.

He was able to help me with all of these things, but when I sprayed the yard for weeds, I made him go inside. He didn’t like it. Libby said that he threw a fit and wanted to be back outside where his Daddy was. I think his fit was one of his better performances from the way Libby described it.

After she told me about it, I started thinking about how great it is to have a son that loves you. He worked right along beside me and most of the things we did were not that much fun. Even when it was for his own good to be inside, he still wanted to be right where his Father was.

Our relationship with our Father in Heaven should be similar. We should have a desire to be right there beside Him, working with Him to accomplish something, even if it is not the most pleasurable thing we have ever done. What makes us happy should be intimacy with the Father, instead of doing things that please us and avoiding things that we may not like all that much.

There are also times when we cannot work alongside our Father, because it is not in our best interests. It is painful to be unable to serve God as you desire, but sometimes we are unable to do so, because it is for our own good.

Do you have a desire to be wherever the Father is? Then find some place to serve Him.