Encourage and support not judge and condemn is the way we all need to live our lives. It is so wrong when we are quick to correct others. That old saying of who died and made you God is one we should heed. We aren’t all knowing. We don’t have all the facts and history of a situation. We don’t see the big picture. Besides which I am pretty sure that I never had a perfect score on an IQ test. Even those with more grey matter than me don’t have a window to all the emotions involved that effect other’s choices and beliefs. So let’s just start defaulting to encouragement and supporting one another. After all, the first commandment is to love God and to love others. Probably a good practice. I say practice because even when we act like it, none of us are perfect. So let’s keep practicing not being offended or believing we need to enlighten others. Just relax and work on trusting your own path.
Our attitudes are everything. If we look for offenses we will find them. We can choose to live unoffended and not offending or we can stay in our lane and lead with love. It is true that I struggle with doubting myself while simultaneously believing I know more than others. How does that even work? I beat myself up with the same stick I use as my micromanaging wand. Now let me just say, this is an exhausting way to live. My maturity is increasing and I am not as big a know it all as I used to be. Trust me, I still have my moments. Likewise, I am not as black and blue from beating myself up as I was in my younger years. But I still have areas where I don’t give myself a break. Encouraging and supporting ourselves is as important as encouraging and supporting those in our lives. It is important to be intentional about this daily, heck, sometimes hourly.
1 Corinthians 16:14 Let love and kindness be the motivation in all you do. I think about my day when I lay my head on the pillow. I am never perfect living out this verse. But I am striving to see improvement. Choosing love is the example Jesus gave us with His life. I want to live like that!
In Him,
Joyful
2-24-23
I was in a prayer group this Monday and the idea of criticizing others came up. I read today and wrote this down, "The more like Jesus Christ a man becomes, the less he judges others." I like that.
ReplyDeleteI am putting that on my mirror.
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