Choose to Create a Beautiful Life

Written on May 29, 2010 by admin

You think your family’s bad? Check out the story of Joseph in Genesis 37.

Joseph’s family was so bad, his brothers wouldn’t even speak to him. What’s worse, they wanted to kill him.

You know the story. Joseph’s brothers threw him into a pit and planned to kill him. But since they wouldn’t profit from that, they sold him instead as a slave in Egypt.

It would have been easy for Joseph to say, “I’m a victim. This is my life. Woe is me.”

Did he do that? Nope, he said, “This is what’s happening to me but I will make a decision to create a beautiful life.”

So he was sold as a slave to a foreign country with a foreign language and a foreign culture. But he decides to be the best slave of Potiphar, his Egyptian master. He worked for him so well that Potiphar liked him.

But the problem came when even Potiphar’s wife began to like Joseph. She seduced him and when he refused, she cried, “Rape!” Joseph was falsely accused and was imprisoned.

Was that fair? It’s not.

It was not fair that his brothers threw him in a pit. It was not fair that they hated him. It was not fair that they sold him as a slave, it was not fair that he was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. But he remained accountable and he decided, “I’m going to respond in the right way.”

Because of that, Joseph became second-in-command over all of Egypt. At the age of 30, he became the governor. He made a decision to create a beautiful life.

Posted in bible, family