Imagine that you came over to my house for dinner and it was the first time you had ever been in our house and around our kids. You brought your two kids and expected to be able to visit while the kids played.

Instead, I busied myself in the kitchen while my children wreaked havoc. First, the youngest finds your purse, dumps it out, and starts pilfering through it. You find him eating your iPhone. Next, the oldest starts hitting your child and screaming at him not to touch his toys because, “They are MINE!”

You are mortified and look to me expecting some kind of intervention, but instead I continue stirring the apricot glaze for the chicken. I look over at you and say, “Boys. What are you going to do with them? Sometimes you just gotta let’m figure out things for themselves.”

About this time your jaw drops and you start considering the short list of excuses you could use to make a quick exit.

Don’t worry. That would NOT happen in my house. My boys aren’t angels and they are likely to go through an unattended purse or get a little stingy, but my husband and I have no tolerance for that kind of behavior. They will always find themselves in time-out or even get a spanking when they act up.

They are young, but they know the difference between right and wrong.

And in my house we have rules – simple rules, not Sound-of-Music-whistle-tooting-rules – but rules none the less. If one of my boys misbehaves, he has to go in time-out for the same number of minutes as his age. Then, he has to tell whoever he offended that he is sorry for what he did and give them a hug. If he won’t, then time-out starts over.

I guess you could say those are the rules for making amends in our house.

I imagine that you have some rules in your house as well.

Am I right?

Rules for making amends, rules for . . . well, rules for everything probably.

God also had rules when He instructed Moses on how to build His house (the temple).

Leviticus isn’t that comfort-me-with-encouragement-and-praise-kind-of-book in the Bible. In fact, I don’t think I have ever read it straight though, so this will be a first for me. The first chapters of Leviticus are all about rules. How to give a burnt offering? How to give a fellowship offering? How to give a sin offering? Etc.

I noticed something interesting while reading through these verses today. God didn’t say, “I only accept offerings from a lamb.” He didn’t say, “If you can’t provide a grain offering, then I don’t want it.”  Instead, it is though He considered every possible person and every scenario that might keep them from being able to give an offering, and he gave instructions for each.

If you have bulls, offer bulls.

If you have goats, offer goats.

If you have birds, offer birds.

If you have grain, offer grain.

Essentially, whatever you have . . . offer it.  Then, after it is offered it becomes a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

Sure He provided specific instructions for each type of offering, but still he considered everyone and at the same time every excuse of why someone might not make an offering.

So, His rules left everyone without an excuse.

Now you and I know that we don’t have to slaughter an animal to get right with God, since the one true lamb – Jesus Christ – was sacrificed for our sins. Perhaps that is why I haven’t paid that much attention to these verses before.

Being a mother, though, gives me new insight into these verses. My sons are very unique. Though they have the same parents, they have very different personalities. Part of that uniqueness is apparent in the way they respond to discipline. Big C, the 3-year-old, embraces the challenge of being defiant and the discipline that worked yesterday may not work today. But his little brother is the total opposite (at least for now). If I even look at him crossways, he responds. Just as they respond to discipline differently, they both make amends in different ways. Big C is all about hugging my legs – after all he is too big to give me kisses anymore. Lil’ C on the other hand buries his face into mine covering my cheeks with slobbery open mouthed 1-year-old kisses.

I don’t have a preference. I don’t prefer the hugs over the kisses or the kisses over the hugs. I love them both. They both please me. They both make me smile.

While the only way to make true amends with God for our sin is through Jesus Christ and his redemptive work in our lives, each of us are still very unique and we each have something different to offer.

God doesn’t care if you don’t have a bull or a dove. All he cares about is that whatever you have, that you offer it to Him.

What are you talents? What are your gifts?

Whatever it is – remember don’t compare it with what someone else has – just offer it Him.

My two cents from Leviticus 1-4: Give whatever you have as an offering to the Lord and it will be a pleasing aroma to Him – it will make Him smile.

What kind of offering do you have to give?