Guys! Can we talk? I have participated in a couple of conversations recently that served to bring about an awareness, again, of the ease with which we are strikingly self-centered. In each conversation, I noticed as my friend struggled to place the blame for something outside his or her reach on the self. This response appeared overdue.
First and foremost, our God is generous beyond compare. He designed His systems within systems so perfectly as to be admired without ceasing by any thinking person. I find my rest in it.
Please consider: Each of us is the product biologically, genetically, and environmentally of many others, as well as of our own choices and responses to outer stimuli; therefore comments filled with negative connotations, meant as criticisms, that we are all guilty of slinging have no place in Truth. They will at most be only partially accurate. For example:
1. Get YOUR kids out of the kitchen.
2. Stop YOUR kid from climbing on that car.
3. He gets THAT from his mother.
4. He is JUST like you.
5. Your channeling your father, AGAIN.
6. There’s my DAD in him.
7. You’re just like your father.
8. You’re just like your mother.
9. There’s no helping her- she’s just like her grandmother!
10. He’s a product of his environment.
11. It happened because he spent so much time in those public schools.
12. It was that messed up church that did it to her.
13. The demands placed on him at that private academy would have killed anyone.
14. You looked JUST like him from the day you were born- I should have known.
15. That afternoon with that one family down the street- kid was never the same.
16. They said that summer camp was all about Jesus- but we know better now!
17. Darn that quack doctor!
18. If only I had specifically laid out the plan of salvation…
19. If only we hadn’t homeschooled.
20. If only we had homeschooled.
How freeing to realize that one traumatic event or even a series of traumatic events, or my DNA or my husband’s DNA or anyone else’s DNA, or a grandparent’s or a teacher’s negative influence, or any other isolated thing is not the sole cause of an outcome in reference to the character of another!
How humbling to know that not I, nor anyone else, nor any environment, nor any single event is solely responsible for any achievement or successful venture on this earth!
How good of God to allow that HE will bring to heaven any and all He had determined to bring- with or without our particular help; to know that we only need live out our LOVE of HIM to the best of our understanding and abilities and ALL will be well.
How gracious is our God! How worthy of ALL praise, glory, and gratitude! And how wonderful to know how small while yet significant are we!
Copyright 2019. L.L. Shelton.