Welcome to One Minute Scripter Study, a Come Follow Me podcast. We are your host, Kristen Walker

Smith and Kelly Black. Hey friend, it's Kristen. Grab your scriptures and let's dive into Genesis

49 versus 3 through 4. And spoiler alert, if you haven't yet read Sense and Sensibility,

don't listen. I'm giving stuff away. But if you have read Jane Austen's

sense and sensibility, you are familiar with the fast and furious love story of the naive

Marianne and the dashing Willoughby. Willoughby is handsome and adventurous and he makes Marianne gitty with

laughter. But he's also selfish and unreliable, and he ends up breaking Marianne's

heart. For all of his good qualities, Willoughby's fault of being wishy-washy turned him into the

villain of the entire book. Wishy-washy behavior is what Jacob's son, Ruben, seemed to struggle with

as well. Jacob spoke to Ruben saying, Ruben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength,

the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power,

which is all a pretty promising beginning.

But then Jacob continues,

unstable as water, thou shalt not excel.

Water is entirely susceptible to outside energy sources.

It changes with the wind, the temperature, and even the moon's movement. It is not steady or reliable, and neither was Rubin.

Ruben had some wonderful qualities. In many ways, he was a good guy, but he couldn't always be counted on to be good,

righteous, or obedient. And so his father predicted, thou shalt not excel. It's not enough for us to

read our scriptures and attend church or keep the commandments sometimes. We have to be steady and

stable in our commitment to Jesus Christ so that unlike Rubin,

we can excel.

So the takeaway of the day in five words or less is, steadiness brings excellence.

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