lessons from a mocah frappaccino

This past week, I went to Chattanooga to hang out at Boot Camp at Precept Ministries International. The camp is an awesome place where kids can be trained in Inductive Bible study and de-noise from the world, spending quality time with the Father. These are NOT your run of the mill kids. It is encouraging to see kids who want more and are willing to put forth the effort to grow in Jesus.
While there, I met a student named Josh. I was immediately intrigued with Josh, because he reminds me a little bit of my son Noah. (although older) He is a pretty cool guy with tons of personality (a little bit of attitude), a heart for the Lord and a desire to grow. However, Josh is a Gamecock fan and since I am from Clemson Tiger county-we had a little bit of trash talk going on about our teams. During the course of our stay the World Series was going on (for college) and Clemson was playing Georgia Tech. Josh took every opportunity to thrash my Tigers...and to praise his Cocks. It made for interesting conversation. He was very confident and cocky that the Tigers were going to get beat, however they won 8-4.
So, I wanted to be sure to make the most of the opportunity to rib him about the win. Although the Tigers won, he did not want to concede to the TRUTH that the Tigers were indeed a team to be reckoned with. After much banter, he headed back to class, but not before discovering that I was making a trip to Starbucks for coffee. All of a sudden, he is begging me for a Mocha Fappaccino. I'm like....no way...not after you wouldn't admit that Clemson has a good team. He continued to beg. Being the Christian Woman that I am, I immediately told him I would buy him one if he would apologize. But then, we thought better of it. Perhaps a lesson should be learned. In order to get his Mocah Frap, he had to apologize on one knee and concede that Clemson was a good team.
It didn't take long for him to decide that it was worth it. He crossed room, knelt before me and apologized and admitted Clemson's greatness.
I made my trip to Starbucks and picked up his Frap. He couldn't have it during class, so I let him know it was waiting for him. As soon as they were on break, he came flying downstairs to find me. He thanked me for his Frap and began to enjoy the moment. That is until everyone wanted to know how he got his Frap.
I insisted that he explain. So he began to tell the group gathered around (all wanting what he had) about the story-how he had to apologize and admit that Clemson was great. I laughed and gave him a hug, but then asked him what the lesson was that he learned in all this.
He looked at me a little funny. I simply stated, "with great humility, comes great reward." The light bulb went on and he understood. By humbling himself, he not only got what he wanted, but had what everyone else wanted as well. What a lesson for all of us...ME included. Often I am quick to defend, fight for or even try to work out the things that I want. When the Father is simply saying, bend the knee and humble yourself and great reward will follow. Sometimes we miss out on the great things God has for us, simply because we won't admit we were wrong and bend the knee.
Josh got a lesson from his Frappaccino. He taught me a lot that day....he was quick to bend that knee when there was something he wanted. If I want more of the Father....i need to be just a quick to bend the knee as well. So maybe the next time you want something....the best way to go about getting it is to humble ourselves before the Father.


ALL FOR YOU