Personally I justify every piece of chocolate that enters my body. However this weekend, I was reminded as I listened to families gathered, that I have work to do on my justification of what I think and say. Too often this weekend I heard folks say out loud why it was okay to do this or that….and the justifications made me cringe…do I sound like that too? I bet I do!
We often do not know the whole story. We narrow our perspective to be “THE”one when there are perfectly good reasons for there to be another view. We get narrow in our perspectives and sometimes harsh in our pronouncements of right and wrong.
Ouch.
God doesn’t call me to justify my bad behavior or judge others for theirs, he calls me to not be offended. Offense is such a tool of the devil. If we can just get offended about something then we can do all kinds of other act outs with justification in our minds…once offended it’s like you’ve given yourself permission to just cut up and act out too.
ugh.
Nothing like the rabbit hole of self righteousness when you’re absolutely in the wrong. After all, we’re called to love others as we love ourselves. To forgive so we can be forgiven. To seek to understand so we can be understood. hmmm. Maybe the area that needs working on is a healthier version of self love.
Weddings are such a wonderful time to remember what new love is. It’s a decision to commit for life to “working things out”. Personally I’ve failed twice on that front. No matter what happens, you’re still 100% responsible for at least half a marriage failure. I am thankful that this round, fifteen years in, Les and I have pledged to grow our marriage in a healthy, God centered way. That means divorce is not an option for us (after all I told him when we married, I’d been a divorcee’, but thought perhaps “widow” was a better choice next round if he needed to leave….I’ve teased that he’ll be happily married as he chooses to live) I remind him that I don’t have enough insurance yet, so he’s safe.
Each of us come from such different places, it’s a good reminded to remember that when families come together this holiday, that we are called first to love one another. After that, it’s all about who gets to the drumstick first isn’t it?
