God is Good All the Time, I'm not

One nice perk to living outside of town that we're noticing is the beauty we get to see everyday that we rarely saw before. Our little town had character, but now we see rolling hills with cows and horses, farmers farming, and clothes drying on a line. It does the heart good, I think.

The other day I was driving amidst this beauty and had one of those epiphany moments. I'd been wondering how certain people like my pastor's wife can be so very disciplined in their speech that you can't even imagine them ever speaking ill of another person. In that moment on the road, it dawned on me that to love God with all my heart, mind and strength is to also to glorify Him and to worship Him with all that I have all the time. Then my words and my actions are not my own. Every word should be for Him. What place is there in my worship/my life for speech that is negative about another creation, like me, that is made in HIS image?

The same could be said regarding anger, what place is there in worshiping God with my life to release the wrath of Becca on another precious soul, who do I think I am? God? There is evil in the world and it's not wrong to be angry about it or to speak of it, but since we are told to think on whatever is true, honest, just, pure, and lovely, well there isn't much time for yuck in our lives, is there? Not unless we're actively doing something about it anyways, eh?

So, Saturday, I went to visit Markie, my friend who was in a car accident and has severe brain damage. I read some of God's Word to him as honestly, it's sometimes hard to know what to say to someone who can't speak back to you. I probably thought God would speak to him through the passage, but no, He spoke to me instead. Here's what it said,

Don't speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God's law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor? -James 4:11&12

Calling all Pharisees! Chief Becca here to share that she's been wrong. It's not okay to judge ANYONE, ever! So they parent differently than you, maybe there's a good reason. So that church worships differently than you do, they're still the bride of Christ. So they have different political views (**gasp**, you mean maybe Jesus wasn't a Republican?). All I know is that there is NO bandwagon that I can jump on completely unless it's Jesus' personal bandwagon.

I've been praying for love, that I could just begin to love others as Christ does. Letting go of presuppositions that may not be Biblical and forming speech and actions that are disciplined is a good first step in loving my neighbor. Giving others grace as I would myself, and in all humility, love and respect for their Creator, worship God with my words and my actions, all the time, that's my goal.