Genesis 44:18–24 (ESV)
Joseph Tests His Brothers
18 Then Judah went up to him and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself.
19 My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’ 20 And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old
age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’ 21 Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ 22 We
said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ 23 Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall
not see my face again.’ 24 “When we went back to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.
We see in this passage again, some of the damage that arises when a parent has a favorite child. If you are a parent, please love all your children and don’t have favorites.
Remember that each child is different. Differences are not a bad thing, they help make each child unique. One child will be smarter. One child might be stronger. But they are your children and they are a gift of God. Children don’t
need insecurities created by the parents.
I pray: O
Lord, help me to be a good parent and to love all my children and not to have favorites. Amen.