JUNE 25, Psalm 119:60

“I’ll do it in a minute,” said Luke when his dad told him to take out the trash. When Mom reminded him to clean his room, Luke answered, “Okay, in a minute.” When asked to mow the lawn, his answer was, “Just a minute, I’m busy now.” But the “minute” usually stretched to many more and often Luke had to be told several times before the work was done.

One evening, after dinner, Luke asked his dad to shoot a few baskets with him. “Sure will, Luke,” Dad nodded. “Just a minute.”

Luke went out and rode his bike up and down the driveway while he waited. Finally, he went to find Dad. “When are you coming out?” he asked.

Dad looked up from his newspaper. “Oh, in a minute,” he replied, and he continued to read.

Luke waited a while, asked again... and again. Each time he asked, he got the same answer. “But Dad,” protested Luke at last, “you’ve said that four times now. It’s been thirty minutes already.”

Mom smiled at Luke. “You know... we don’t mind keeping others waiting,” she said, “but we hate to wait ourselves, don’t we?”

“What do you mean?” asked Luke. Actually, he was afraid he already knew the answer.

“You often tell Dad and me that you’ll do something ‘in a minute,’ but then you don’t do it quickly at all,” came Mom’s explanation.

Dad nodded. “I decided to give you a little taste of your own medicine,” he added. He paused. “Actually, there’s a good lesson here for all of us. It’s easy for us to ask God to wait too. For example, I sometimes put off speaking to someone about the Lord for ‘a minute’ and then never get around to do it.”

“I’m glad God doesn’t do that,” Mom said thoughtfully. “Wouldn’t it be terrible if we needed Him and He said, ‘Just a minute, I’m busy with someone else now’? Let’s all be very careful to promptly do what He wants us to do.”

“Yes,” said Dad, “and that includes obeying your parents right away.” He got up. “Get the basketball,” he said. “Let’s not wait any more minutes.”

Thought: Do you like to put things off for “just a minute”, or do you obey quickly?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, teach me to obey You and my parents right away, instead of postponing it. Please help me to change. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.