Favoritism

The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. 28 Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Genesis 25:27-28

In Genesis 25, Isaac and Rebekah have twins. While God has been trying to work through this family to bring around the blessing of all peoples on Earth (that was the call on Isaac's dad, Abraham, back in Genesis 12), human beings constantly seem to sidetrack that original design. In this passage today, we see Dad and Mom picking favorites, and then the two boys end up spending a lot of years fighting in out in a bitter sibling rivalry.

But it wasn't just back then. A mom after church yesterday came up to me (Bill) with an embarrassed look and said, "So this week I googled I have a favorite child." Of course we have favorites - we have favorite friends, favorite uncles, favorite parents - this is normal. The question, of course, is what do we do with those who are not our favorite? How do we love them? 

So what might God be trying to accomplish in our character by putting us with people (yes, even some in our families) who are not our favorite? Will you allow God to increase your patience? to teach you forgiveness? to empower you to be selfless? to lean to love? Pray about these things, and the gift of God giving you people in your life who are not your favorite.