Daily Devotional for Tuesday, February 11

Learning To Bear Your Burdens

"For every man shall bear his own burden;· Galatians 6:5.

For awhileI was working for acompany installingrubberized flooring. It was a physically demanding job outdoors and required several trained workers to do different aspects of the installation. One of my coworkers, the one who mixed the materials together, broke her finger badly enough to need pins and a cast. We had to bring in another person to help her with her tasks on the jobsite. He helped her lift, pour, sort, measure and mix because she was just not able to handle it all independently due to her injury. Our new helper looked at his role on the team and started to believe he would be able to take over the job completely. He had listened to everything she told him and was doing all of the heavy lifting anyway, right? During lunch, he decided he would mix another batch while my coworker was eating. We were able to get right back to work without having to wait on anew load of rubber. After a while, though, we stepped back and realized that the batch he did on his own was aslightly different color than the rest of the patio, and there was nothing we could do about it once it was already in place.

Paul told us in verse 2 that we should help each other out in times of need. He warned in the next verse not to boast in what we did for others, believing we were important because we were not in their situation. Instead, we are to examine ourselves completely so that our celebration is based on what God is doing through us and not because we consider ourselves better than others. God has given each of us spiritual gifts to use for Him, and we are all responsible for how we use those gifts.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

We should not pat ourselves on the back for helping fellow-Christiansin times of need. Let us clearly look at our own actions to see if we are being obedient to God with the assignments He has given us.

Ashley Ridings