15 So the men took the gifts and double the amount of silver, and Benjamin also. They hurried down to Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph. 16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Take these men to my house, slaughter an animal and prepare a meal; they are to eat with me at noon.”

17 The man did as Joseph told him and took the men to Joseph’s house. 18 Now the men were frightened when they were taken to his house. They thought, “We were brought here because of the silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys.”

19 So they went up to Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house. 20 “We beg your pardon, our lord,” they said, “we came down here the first time to buy food. 21 But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver—the exact weight—in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. 22 We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in our sacks.”

23 “It’s all right,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.

Dear God, the steward seems to have a fun role to play in this story. He gets to be the bearer of good tidings. He gets to affirm to them that you are with them. He basically gets to be your voice to them and let them know that you are in this. They are about to be brought to repentance, and they don’t yet know that, but in the meantime you are still taking the opportunity to encourage them through this steward.

Right now, I am in the position I hate where I have to figure out a way to parse out one of my kids’ bad behavior from their good behavior and deal with it appropriately. Frankly, this child has seemingly been doing a good job in most areas of their life, yet they are pushing some of the rules here. I get the feeling if I don’t nip it in the bud now and hold them accountable, then I will really be paying a price when they are older and I have much less control over them.

Father, I guess all of this relates because I want to figure out how to be a part of your presence to my childre and still be their father. I know that you want me to guide my children, but, frankly, they are hard to guide. Their temperaments are different from each other and can be tricky to navigate. So help me to navigate this in a way that shows them your love for them, my love for them, and my wife’s love for them. Help to mold them into adults who will ultimately be submitted to you. Mold me in your image as well so that you might receive glory through all of us.