Matthew 20:21<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd He said to her, \u2018What do you wish?\u2019 She said to Him, \u2018Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.\u2019 \u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The mother of James and John came to Jesus with her sons, and kneeling down before Him, she made that brazen request. She wanted her sons to occupy the positions of highest authority in God\u2019s kingdom; and while her request was legitimate, it was wrong at its core. It\u2019s ok for a mother to desire the best for her children, but she must allow them to earn that best. This woman\u2019s desire to see her children be the best in ministry and to rise to the place of greatest honor was not illegitimate (indeed every correct parent ought to desire the best for their children). The problem however was that she wanted them to achieve this, without following due process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is paramount, therefore, that we do not let our zeal for the success of our beloved ones, push us into seeking illegitimate means and short-cuts to their prosperity. A house firmly built on a right foundation can stand the test of time. Let our loved ones go through the normal processes of life and if they deserve to be promoted, then they will. But if they do not qualify for the positions we want for them, let\u2019s not push them into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFather, I desire success for my loved ones, but I will let You define what, where and how that will happen. I will not seek any short cuts for my loved ones, but pray they grow through the natural process of discipline and hard work; for only then is the reward of success worthy of anything. This I ask for, in Jesus name. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 20:21 \u201cAnd He said to her, \u2018What do you wish?\u2019 She said to Him, \u2018Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.\u2019 \u201d The mother of James and John came to Jesus with her sons, and kneeling down before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-matthew"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Reflections-from-Matthew.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4190,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188\/revisions\/4190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}