Broke the two tablets and now I gotta get two new ones...

Reading Exodus 32-34

When God gives a gift, I have to be responsible with it. God can literally make things for us, literally hand craft, but He gives us the responsibility to care for it. 

God gave Moses two tablets carved by Himself with the laws on it that the people are to follow. But Moses, in his anger, when he saw that the people sinned greatly against God by creating a golden calf to worship, threw the two tablets onto the ground and broke them. 

He literally just received something very precious from God and just like that, because of his anger, broke them. It's so interesting to see how chapter 32 continues. Of course they get rid of the golden calf, but as I was reading I was wondering the entire time, "Isn't God going to say anything about the tablets?" But He didn't say anything for until the 34th chapter after God shows Moses His back

It's funny how God tells Moses to carve to tablets. He reminds him that he broke the last two. Then God tells Moses to be ready by morning and to come up Mount Sinai. The very thing God gave in the beginning, had to now be worked for because of his anger. I wonder how many things I've messed up. How many things have God blessed me with that I was irresponsible with that as a result, I have to rework some things myself? 

I think about relationships, work, gifts, talents, homes, families; life. God has done plenty of things for me. For some reason I remember this scene in the Will Smith movie, HITCH. He said, "When you're wondering what to say or how you look, just remember, she's already out with you. That means she said yes when she could have said no. That means she made a plan when she could have just blown you off. So that means it's no longer your job to make her like you. It's your job not to mess it up.

I feel like it's like that many of the times. God blesses us with things without us having to do anything, so what do we do then? We have to take care of what He gives us. A lot of us were blessed beyond measure (materially, including friendships), but now have less because we've broken what God had given.

This is a reminder for me. One of the things that I've longed for is a loving relationship. As I look around. There are so many broken marriages. When the two got married, the marriage was not "broken" but was carved by the hand of God and His grace written all over it. So what happened? I think it's the same all around. They stopped caring and nurturing the relationship. Due to anger and other emotions, throw things on the ground. So because things are now broken, they have to work much harder to rebuild that momentum that God had set initially instead of just flowing in the natural love.

But I love this part of chapter 34:5-7:

 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

I feel like this is the secret right here. To be like God! --> Merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and forgiving. The results of this will last upon generations. If we aren't doing these things, the negative will affect the next generations. I know for a fact that I have suffered a great deal because of what my father had done in the past before I was even born. But God knows what to do with messed up situations, which I am forever grateful.

I want my children to be blessed. It doesn't start when I have children. No, it starts from even before I even have a girlfriend! I must care for my life and take care of this body that God has given me. I must do what is right and pleasing to God. I must rest in his presence. I want to see God. I want God to show me His glory. In Jesus' name, amen.