Stumbling into Trouble

I’ve always been a little on the ornery side.  As a kid, being the oldest of four, there were lots of times that Mom said, “Mike, go tell your sisters dinner is ready” or “Find your brother and tell him  it is time to come home”.

I was often given the responsibility of speaking for Mom and Dad.

Now, being the rat that I was, there are more than a few times that I may have embellished on this and I could possibly have told my brother and sisters to do some things, ordered by Mom or Dad, that they weren’t really supposed to do.

I don’t think that making my sisters eat dry dog food was one of those things but that is a different story entirely.

There may have even been times that I used my position as messenger for Mom and Dad to get my siblings to do my chores.

Proverbs 13:17 An unreliable messenger stumbles into trouble, but a reliable messenger brings healing.

I read this verse and my mind raced back to my unreliable messenger days of childhood. In my case, the trouble I stumbled into was often called a belt.

It seems that eventually got caught misrepresenting my parents’ messages and they didn’t seem to like it one bit.

I need to be very careful what I represent here on the pages of what I write and the things that I do and say.  If I want to spread a message around, I need to be sure to be a reliable messenger.

Sometimes, I confess I am less reliable than even our old 1978 Olds Cutlass but that, too, is an entirely different story.

Reliability sometimes seems kind of boring to me.  It is often tempting to spice it up a little.  But being able to count on anything, the car, the electricity, the sunrise, the weatherman (OK, I’ve never encountered a reliable weatherman, so that may not be the best example), all bring a reduction in worry, stress, frustration and aggravation.

If I am reliable, I can do the same.  I can bring healing.  There really aren’t many better things I can bring to anyone’s life.  Bringing healing is a pretty good goal for anyone’s day.

I always have an option, when I may not know exactly what to do or say or what role to play in someone’s life, to just be reliable with my message.  It may seem dull, boring, repetitive or whatever but it will bring healing and that is never a bad thing.