"But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD" (Joshua 24:15).

Solomon, the son of King David would certainly have made his father proud for fullfiling his dream of building a Temple for the Lord, which had long been his father's dream. While both had a deep reverence of God there is though an aspect where father and son deferred, a matter worth our today's reflection.

Once after the ark of God had been brought back to Jerusalem, King David could not contain his joy. An expressive man right at the spur of the moment he tore loose to join the festivities. Far off his Queen, Micah, the daughter of King Saul, glanced at him with contempt. Concerned more about how the world perceived the King than God, once she met David in the hallway she scoffed at him: "How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!” (2 Samuel 6:20).

David, at the receiving end, did not lose a moment. "I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this.  (vv 20-21). In other words, David was not about to be swayed from God even by someone so close to him!

Yet on the other hand consider this: As ''Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been" (1 Kings 11:4). Where the father held steadfast to the things of God, the son let himself be swept away because of his many other dubious relations.

King David is known as a "man with a heart after God!" If it came to make a choice and the case was clearly not of God, his position was already clear. That is the spirit we all need to take us far with God.

Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, where I am faced with a choice to serve you or seek the adoration of man, I pray that my heart is always absolutely devoted to you, this I pray in Jesus' name.