The story of the Prodigal Son... a review.

I was reading my old posts in this blog when I read a post I wrote in 2010 about behaving like a pharisee... I also alluded to the story of the Prodigal Son from the bible. This extract was taken from my prayer journal and it was something that I wrote back in 2017.

Clearly, there has been a change in my thinking and I just wanted to be able to record it down and cross reference it as I get older, that is IF I actually remember that I have a blog. One Sunday in 2017, I was listening to pastor was retelling the story of the prodigal son at church. As a child, I was puzzled at why the Father would forgive his wayward younger son but, I was happy to know that if I misbehaved, the story tells me that the Heavenly Father would still forgive me.

As I got older and read the story on my own, I felt that I could empathize with the older son's feelings when the Father celebrated the return of the prodigal son. I have had the feelings of being sore, 

of having suffered and felt shortchanged in my life although I have strived to do the right things, toe the line and be the best person that I could be. I could so totally understand the older brother's anger and frustration. 

Now that I am older still (middle-aged ... Yah), I feel that I can understand a bit better the heart of the Father and I would like to remember that everything the Father had belonged to the elder son. I was to remember that the younger son had given up and squandered his inheritance. There was no need for the elder brother to be frustrated at the Father welcoming back the prodigal son with open arms. There is enough. Like the Father, the older brother should at least attempt to open his heart to his younger brother.

At that point when I wrote the paragraphs in the prayer journal, my soul was being convicted as I was upset about things that were unfair, unjust and about bad people, lazy people, entitled people getting away with things. I was full of self-pity and was working myself up. I was behaving exactly like the older son in the story in his indignation and yet I was struggling to be gracious and forgiving.

Then, I was pointed to a new (then) viral video of a girl who was born without arms, abandoned at birth and still pursuing her dreams of playing the piano and singing. 

Watching her play, I couldn't stop crying... then I was reminded how entitled we who are so blessed are. I still can't watch her perform without crying, I can't find the original video with her full story but here is a video of her performance. 

https://youtu.be/uYbQJbHhne4

After watching that, how can I complain... it's a good reminder... I shall post this up.