When I told one of my new friends where I was from ...he was interested in visiting.
So, I invited him.
I was about to show him where I grew up ...my parent's home.
Of course, I had to tell my parents ...so, I wouldn't make it look like a surprise invasion.
What did my parents do ...when I told them??
They got busy cleaning the house.
Monday, September 8, 2014
We may all have a difference of opinion on what it means to be clean.
And we may even have a difference of opinion on whether we think we need to clean up anything at all.
Some people say, "We can't have company with the place looking like this!"
Other people say, "The place looks fine ...why make all the fuss? If they don't accept us for who we are, then it's not who we are."
There's not one right approach, and one wrong approach ...just different.
It's a matter of perspective ...like most things seem to be.
Sometimes we could use a new perspective.
******************************
I remember a time, when I'm embarrassed to say, I was old enough to drive a car ...and should have been old enough to know better. I was spending the night at the lakes with a friend.
They had a nice cottage ...and it was a nice evening.
Nice for swimming.
And that's where the first "should have been old enough to know better" took hold on us.
It usually starts out the same way ...something that appears either different, or wonderful and exciting.
There was heat lightning that lit up the entire sky ...and we felt it added to the adventure of swimming late at night. I've often heard that ignorance is bliss ...but, it may have been an entirely different perspective if the lightning had electrified the water.
Eventually, we tired of all our fun ...and settled down within the safety of the cottage. But, we didn't sleep long as we were still a bit charged from all our fun the evening before. Early morning, we went for a drive.
We came upon the old iron mine ...and to our surprise, we discovered that the souvenir shop had burned completely to the ground.
My friend kicked around in the ashes ...and discovered a souvenir toy cannon. At that point it felt like a treasure hunt. I was not at all innocent, but facts are facts ...and I was not as enthusiastic as my friend. I only took the metal frying pan, after he insisted that my mom would appreciate it.
My mom did not appreciate it!
Mom asked pointedly, "Where did this come from?"
I had hid it among her other pans ...I guess, expecting she'd share in the fun of discovery also.
But, after explaining my reasoning ...that I felt that since it would only be bulldozed, Mom corrected me and told me that they'd be able to salvage most of that stuff.
I shared Mom's wisdom that day with my friend, and we promptly returned all the treasures ...except the most valuable treasure. We kept the advice of Mom.
******************************
Under a communist dictatorship, the government my claim ownership of everything ...but, in our country we have private property. Most everything belongs to someone, and if it is a park or nature trail that everyone can share ...we still don't take things that are not solely ours.
If something does not belong exclusively to us ...then we should not act like it is ours. This is a basic concept that I think everyone should learn, and I felt our children should understand this. So, when I saw our child and a friend clipping the flowers out of the neighbor's yard ...I opened the window and hollered, "Hey!"
I think it is important to respect other people's things ...and also other people. But, in respecting other people, it does not mean I have to respect what they do. There is still a standard of right and wrong ...and I can respectfully tell or remind them of that.
So, if everyone is given a consequence, punishment, or levied a fine ...then things would be more fine. Doing something wrong could have it's consequences, and if everyone understood that ...they would see a consistent standard, and everyone wouldn't have to feel obliged to point out the wrong by using certain others as examples. And that would help eliminate a certain amount of teaching, or what we could call borderline gossip.
Actually, there doesn't even have to be consequences ...if people would just sincerely acknowledge the wrong. We can forgive people for what they've done whether they acknowledge it or not, but it certainly makes the forgiveness much more sweeter when reconciliation is shared.
The Holy Spirit encourages us to make right, or reconcile our mistakes. And often we struggle with something we find personally difficult for us to do ...yet, though the struggle may seem even intense at times, our misery is better than having moved beyond that point of not even considering what the Holy Spirit may be prompting us to realize.
Some people say, "We can't have company with the place looking like this!"
Other people say, "The place looks fine ...why make all the fuss? If they don't accept us for who we are, then it's not who we are."
There's not one right approach, and one wrong approach ...just different.
It's a matter of perspective ...like most things seem to be.
Sometimes we could use a new perspective.
******************************
I remember a time, when I'm embarrassed to say, I was old enough to drive a car ...and should have been old enough to know better. I was spending the night at the lakes with a friend.
They had a nice cottage ...and it was a nice evening.
Nice for swimming.
And that's where the first "should have been old enough to know better" took hold on us.
It usually starts out the same way ...something that appears either different, or wonderful and exciting.
There was heat lightning that lit up the entire sky ...and we felt it added to the adventure of swimming late at night. I've often heard that ignorance is bliss ...but, it may have been an entirely different perspective if the lightning had electrified the water.
Eventually, we tired of all our fun ...and settled down within the safety of the cottage. But, we didn't sleep long as we were still a bit charged from all our fun the evening before. Early morning, we went for a drive.
We came upon the old iron mine ...and to our surprise, we discovered that the souvenir shop had burned completely to the ground.
My friend kicked around in the ashes ...and discovered a souvenir toy cannon. At that point it felt like a treasure hunt. I was not at all innocent, but facts are facts ...and I was not as enthusiastic as my friend. I only took the metal frying pan, after he insisted that my mom would appreciate it.
My mom did not appreciate it!
Mom asked pointedly, "Where did this come from?"
I had hid it among her other pans ...I guess, expecting she'd share in the fun of discovery also.
But, after explaining my reasoning ...that I felt that since it would only be bulldozed, Mom corrected me and told me that they'd be able to salvage most of that stuff.
I shared Mom's wisdom that day with my friend, and we promptly returned all the treasures ...except the most valuable treasure. We kept the advice of Mom.
******************************
Under a communist dictatorship, the government my claim ownership of everything ...but, in our country we have private property. Most everything belongs to someone, and if it is a park or nature trail that everyone can share ...we still don't take things that are not solely ours.
If something does not belong exclusively to us ...then we should not act like it is ours. This is a basic concept that I think everyone should learn, and I felt our children should understand this. So, when I saw our child and a friend clipping the flowers out of the neighbor's yard ...I opened the window and hollered, "Hey!"
I think it is important to respect other people's things ...and also other people. But, in respecting other people, it does not mean I have to respect what they do. There is still a standard of right and wrong ...and I can respectfully tell or remind them of that.
So, if everyone is given a consequence, punishment, or levied a fine ...then things would be more fine. Doing something wrong could have it's consequences, and if everyone understood that ...they would see a consistent standard, and everyone wouldn't have to feel obliged to point out the wrong by using certain others as examples. And that would help eliminate a certain amount of teaching, or what we could call borderline gossip.
Actually, there doesn't even have to be consequences ...if people would just sincerely acknowledge the wrong. We can forgive people for what they've done whether they acknowledge it or not, but it certainly makes the forgiveness much more sweeter when reconciliation is shared.
The Holy Spirit encourages us to make right, or reconcile our mistakes. And often we struggle with something we find personally difficult for us to do ...yet, though the struggle may seem even intense at times, our misery is better than having moved beyond that point of not even considering what the Holy Spirit may be prompting us to realize.
Pride also gets in the way, and often coincides with fear of hurt feelings or rejection ...many times finding it difficult to separate the two. So, we do best to be reminded of the proper perspective.
There are several ways to do this, but the proper perspective always aligns with our understanding of the Word of God.
*************************
Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil:
For Thine is the kingdom, and power, and glory,
For ever.
(This is the example Jesus gave us.)
(There is another verse from the Bible that also ends with the words: For ever. It is from David's Psalms.)
The LORD is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake.
Yea, though I wlak through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
******************************
We have heard that we should invite Jesus into our heart.
Not that long ago, I went for a heart cath. I prayed before I went in ...and I thanked God when I was given a clean bill of health.
I was nevertheless told I should follow a proper diet, and also exercise on a regular basis.
With accepting Jesus into our heart, we need to maintain the proper diet of His Word, and we need to exercise ...or practice what He preaches.
As with going to the dentist, he help us get rid of plaque and fills our cavities.
We likewise need to be wise to brush up on certain things, and fill in the holes that get there because of our occasional neglect. A lot of things enter our mouth, and a lot of things come out of our mouth.
And concerning our heart, there is more in there than we realize. We often build up walls, and we have dreary tunnels we often travel down. We proclaim we want Jesus in our heart, but strangely it is quite accurate what I've often heard people say: "He's in there."
Yes, He is in there ...yet, so is so much else. Do we compartmentalize our heart? Do we label, categorize, stereotype, or pigeonhole? And do we compartmentalize with value placed on certain priorities?
Just like in our home ...are there certain rooms we spend more time in?
The bathroom is often the room we prepare ourselves for what others will see. And we flush what even we don't want to see.
Our Lord sees us without makeup, yet if we look to Jesus, He sees us at our best.
Our bedroom may be the room we spend most of our time in ...but how much of it is conscious. And are we conscientious enough to end the day with a prayer of thanks, and add to our wake-up ...a prayer to start out new day with the proper perspective?
The living room may be the room we spend most of conscious time in. But, how conscious are we about what we do in that room? What is the center of that room? Is it the TV??
We clean our house when we expect guests to arrive ...yet, are we as conscious of how clean our heart is? We know none of us are perfectly clean, but we do make an effort for others to see us as presentable.
What do we consider presentable to Jesus?
Do we compartmentalize Jesus in our heart?
It's something to think about.
*************************
Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil:
For Thine is the kingdom, and power, and glory,
For ever.
(This is the example Jesus gave us.)
(There is another verse from the Bible that also ends with the words: For ever. It is from David's Psalms.)
The LORD is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake.
Yea, though I wlak through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
******************************
We have heard that we should invite Jesus into our heart.
Not that long ago, I went for a heart cath. I prayed before I went in ...and I thanked God when I was given a clean bill of health.
I was nevertheless told I should follow a proper diet, and also exercise on a regular basis.
With accepting Jesus into our heart, we need to maintain the proper diet of His Word, and we need to exercise ...or practice what He preaches.
As with going to the dentist, he help us get rid of plaque and fills our cavities.
We likewise need to be wise to brush up on certain things, and fill in the holes that get there because of our occasional neglect. A lot of things enter our mouth, and a lot of things come out of our mouth.
And concerning our heart, there is more in there than we realize. We often build up walls, and we have dreary tunnels we often travel down. We proclaim we want Jesus in our heart, but strangely it is quite accurate what I've often heard people say: "He's in there."
Yes, He is in there ...yet, so is so much else. Do we compartmentalize our heart? Do we label, categorize, stereotype, or pigeonhole? And do we compartmentalize with value placed on certain priorities?
Just like in our home ...are there certain rooms we spend more time in?
The bathroom is often the room we prepare ourselves for what others will see. And we flush what even we don't want to see.
Our Lord sees us without makeup, yet if we look to Jesus, He sees us at our best.
Our bedroom may be the room we spend most of our time in ...but how much of it is conscious. And are we conscientious enough to end the day with a prayer of thanks, and add to our wake-up ...a prayer to start out new day with the proper perspective?
The living room may be the room we spend most of conscious time in. But, how conscious are we about what we do in that room? What is the center of that room? Is it the TV??
We clean our house when we expect guests to arrive ...yet, are we as conscious of how clean our heart is? We know none of us are perfectly clean, but we do make an effort for others to see us as presentable.
What do we consider presentable to Jesus?
Do we compartmentalize Jesus in our heart?
It's something to think about.
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