Bible Study Seattle

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4

“Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart.” Colossians 3:21

When fathers push their children too hard, they can embitter them. This can also be true with a husband or a boss. I have seen parents with ridiculous expectations for their children. The kids will often develop apathy to get out of an impossible situation. Or how about an exasperating boss. No matter what You do, it’s never good enough. You cannot win. They are constantly looking for something to be disappointed in you, always waiting for you to fall. They might even get frustrated that you do something too well, and give you a backhanded compliment about it! And this is among Christians! Christians? We will see. But how do we deal with exasperating people? We can only take the high ground, and not return evil for evil. Joseph must have known this thoroughly:

“Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. It came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?” As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her. Now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the household was there inside. She caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” And he left his garment in her hand and fled, and went outside. When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to make sport of us; he came in to me to lie with me, and I screamed. When he heard that I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me and fled and went outside.” So she left his garment beside her until his master came home. Then she spoke to him with these words, “The Hebrew slave, whom you brought to us, came in to me to make sport of me; and as I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.” Genesis 39:6-18