So, this being my first post on this blog, I
thought I would say a little about what my goal is before starting. My goal
with this blog is to obviously spread God's grace, and to use this blog as something
sort of like a journal. To just post whatever I'm feeling or thinking, to talk about books I'm absolutely in love with because I'm a HUGE reader, to try
to use it to share my Savior with others, and to hopefully make a few people
laugh. Oh, and I write, so there will be plenty of insider bits about my books
and such, one of which I will hopefully finish soon so I can put it on Amazon.
Exciting, right?
Anyway, today I want to talk a bit about
struggles, particularly my own. I'm not going to go into detail, but I've had a
bit of a revelation today that was a long time in coming. It goes a bit like this: No
matter who sins against you, no matter how irritating it is, no matter how
badly you've been misunderstood, your job isn't to rant, rave, and complain to
God about how annoying, hurtful, and disappointing it is. Your job is to think
back to how you sinned in those
moments, and to work on what you did wrong, whether that feels like the
main issue or not.
Obviously, I’m not just preaching this to you, this is an
issue for me, too. Shocker, right?
Every time someone irritates me, particularly the people I’m related to, I think
about where they went wrong in the
situation; how they sinned. And, let
me tell you a little secret, that’s the natural human reaction. That’s the way we all
automatically react. We don’t normally have an argument with our mothers, then look back
and think, ‘Oh, I did this and this wrong, that’s why we argued.’ We, or at
least I, think, ‘Well, she did this, and she said this, and that wasn’t Christ-like.’
Honestly, I don’t
want to look back at an argument and pick out all the places where I went
wrong. I want to tell myself that I wasn’t really all that wrong, that the
person I was arguing with really did most of the sinning. But, truth is,
whether she/he, or I, did most of the sinning, my focus still should be on my own sins. It doesn’t matter what
she/he did, I still have to answer to God for what I did. I can’t make amends
for my sins by turning to God and saying, ‘So-and-so made me mad because she/he
said this and did that, so whatever I did wrong was simply because of what
she/he did. I have no fault in the matter whatsoever.’ That sound familiar?
Maybe this time you said something out of anger that
shouldn’t have been said, or you used an unforgiving tone, or you had a bad
attitude. Whatever the case may be, and no matter what the other person did, I’m
sure you played a part in the problem as well. In my opinion, if you can’t honestly
say you did exactly what these verses say: ‘Be completely humble and gentle; be
patient, bearing with one another in love… In your anger do not sin. Don not
let the sun go down while you are still angry… Do not let any unwholesome talk
come out of your mouths,’-Ephesians 4:2, 26, & 29- you have at least
one thing you need to repent.
I’m not trying to
guilt-trip anyone, but as Christians, we should help and teach each other. So with
these words, I’m hopefully teaching someone what I’ve just learned, and maybe
finding someone willing to go into this with me and keep me accountable. It’s
not always easy, that I live out day to day, but it will be worth it in the
end. Because some day you will be able to stand and say, ‘Even when Satan used others to try to test me, I obeyed my Father and didn’t sin in my anger or frustration.’
That is so worth struggling for.
(Now, to go along with what I said in the first paragraph,
I would love to share a bit of
insider information about the book I’m writing, which won’t be my first, but it
will be my first on Amazon. So, if you are at all curious what Lives Changed is about,
leave a comment. I will write a post with a synopsis of the book as soon as I get
TEN comments. I love challenges, so get to it, and expect more in the future!)
Mackenzie
