I am the oldest of four children; I am two years older than my sister, 4 years older than my brother and 8 years older than my youngest sister. Growing up, I fancied myself a mom in training and often “filled in” when mom wasn’t around. The problem arose when I felt the need to “discipline” in front of my mom or when I tried to beat her to the punch. Many, many times in my life I heard my mom say, “Meagan, let me be the parent!” or my siblings say “You’re not the boss of me!”I am obviously much older now but the “urge” to parent has not gone away even though all of my siblings are adults. Many times I feel frustrated over an argument or discussion I witness and have to divert myself so I don’t chime in with my own exhortations. I witnessed such a “discussion” tonight and quickly busied myself so I wouldn’t be tempted to interrupt with my own comments. It was really hard to keep my mouth shut….REALLY hard and looking back I have to ask myself why I want so badly to intervene over something so small yet I keep my mouth shut about the really big stuff.
I can think of quite a few times in my life when I’ve seen friends in trouble or headed down a destructive path and I’ve stood idly by or just lightly broached the problem. The first year of my marriage was the toughest one we’ve had thus far (and hopefully will remain the toughest); adjusting to married life and the stress of being in a new town with new jobs barely making ends meet made for a very stressful marriage. We were headed down a destructive path in our marriage but had no gauge with which to realize we were headed for trouble. We hit rock bottom before we were able to come out on top and looking back I see that we were clearly in trouble and no one from our church family said anything (our parents were so far away they didn’t know). Can you think of a time when you’ve avoided confronting someone about destructive behavior when you knew you should?
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2
Galatians 6:2
Your thoughts?
2 comments:
A woman was asked by a coworker, "What is it like to be a Christian?"
The coworker replied, "It is like being a pumpkin." God picks you from the patch, brings you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. Then He cuts off the top and scoops out all the yucky stuff.
He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, and greed. Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for the world to see."
This was passed on to me by another pumpkin. Now it's your turn to pass it to other pumpkins.
P.S. This a.m. we sat behind a darling little boy named Noah, being lovingly cared for by his Aunt Leslie and Uncle Tristan. Noah is the BEST baby!!
What a great illustration! Thanks for sharing it with me and I'll be sure to pass it along. So glad you got to meet our loved ones...they sure loved taking care of our little man!
God Bless!
Meagan
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