Beverly Joy Roberts

My three children did not get to weigh in on me as their mother.   It was the luck of the gene pool draw that each one became my child.   I tried my best to be the kind of parent that brought loving correction and spiritual training to their young lives, but I was far from perfect.   Now that my child-rearing years are far behind me, I can look back and contemplate with objectivity my parenting skills.   As a young mom, I was not always longsuffering or patient with my sweet children when it came to bad behavior.  I was in my early twenties when my two sons were born, and I ran a tight ship when it came to obedience.  Then at 29, surprise, my daughter was born.   My sons may disagree with me, but I do believe all three of my children were held to the same high standard of behavior.   However, I can admit, the types of punishment for the girl was less corporal in style and more instructional.   The theme of the book of Nahum, one of the twelve minor prophets i

When my 2nd son's family come to visit, they love to play games around the table in the evening.  I enjoy joining in the games with them because I want to be with them.  The game my son wanted to play was new to me and require an explanation for this newbie.   When I play a new game, I like to have all the information at the beginning of the game.  I don't like it when the rules change, or new rules are added as we go along.  The last game I played with my son's family was over a month ago.  As he was explaining the game to me, he needed to freshen up on the rules himself.  He pulled the rules from the box and to my surprise the rules were in Chinese characters.   I made a humm sound then added, "I guess, I'll have to take your word for it." When it comes to rules, the same is true in my Christian life.  I wouldn't like it if I worked hard to learn what is expected of me from the Lord and then ten years goes by and God throws down s

I'm a firm believer in justice for all, but sometimes I forget the mercy part.  I'm thrilled when mercy is extended to me and those in my circle, but when another person, who I may not agree with behaves badly--well--maybe they just deserve everything they get.   Mercy be gone! Actually, I really do like it when the same rules apply to everyone.  I don't like it when one person gets special favor, while another person is excluded.   I think the term  fair play  comes to mind. In the book of Jonah, the main man himself was struggling a bit with  fair play .   Jonah was told by God to go to Ninevah.  He disobeyed God and went the opposite way.  After some amazing things happened to Jonah, he repented and obeyed God by going to Ninevah and telling the people to repent of their ways.   The great part of this story, even bigger than the fish, was that the people of Ninevah listened to Jonah and repented.   In Jonah 3:10 (NKJV) it says this,  Then Go

I really dislike bullies.  As a child, if you've ever experienced the pain of being bullied, as an adult, you want to make sure you positively influence every child in your care to be loving and kind.   I was bullied in the 6th grade.  I remember it well.  A girl in my class disliked me and tried often to do mean things to me.  As much as possible, I tried to fly under her radar.  Most of that year, I endeavored to have minimal interaction with her.  But, all the while, I was well aware that she meant me harm. The book of  Obadiah is known for being the shortest book in the Bible.  This Old Testament book has one chapter compiled of 21 verses.  This brief prophecy tells of the Edomites' who were bullies that mistreated the Israelites (God’s people).   These bullies found out by the end of the 21 verses what would be their fate.  They discovered that the kingdom shall be the Lord’s and while we all know that suffering does exist in the world, God takes care of His peop