An Apology I Owe

You know that feeling as the roller coaster is slowly creeping up the hill and you know at some point it will get to the top and then you'll take off? Well, today I hit that hill. paused, and then went for the ride of my life.  The past few days feel like crazy just took over the world out of nowhere and sucked everyone into this vortex, me included.  It was a test I'm sure. I guess I will have to ask for a make up. 

I never comment on issues on facebook.  I just don't. Facebook is where I share my cool pictures for my family and play a couple games when I'm bored.  Yesterday, I broke my rule.  I was so stirred up because we are so human. I wrote  a couple of posts. One on a new fb page and some others on status's. I knew something wasn't right because I haven't had any peace about this since.

So the back story; the before to the after...  I live in the South, formerly from the Northeast. As for the community I live in, the Civil War is over, they hold reenactments to teach history to the children and everything is as it should be.  No one is showing any signs of discrimination. No one flies a rebel flag in the yard. No one runs around smearing rebellious campaigns against other persons.  We are overly nice and respectful to everyone.  We even go out of our way to teach respect of all other living things to our children. The only time I saw a rebel flags is when it was wrapped around the grave of my neighbors great grandfather who fought in the civil war.  It's a family thing. Honestly, I did not realize that people were still finding offense of this symbol until a friend, who I would never hurt in a million years (DJ), put it in perspective for me. I would not be so soft hearted if it were a Nazi swastika. My heart sank to my feet when the revelation hit me and I felt awful. So my choice is people. I choose them over any symbol or idol.  Do what you want with the laws, flags, marriages, or whatever but if one thing I do or say hurts someone else, especially my friends and family, I am breaking the law of the spirit and this causes me more grief than anything. So, in short, I'm sorry.

There are and always will be drama in this country, laws passed, sins disputed, humans being humans but ...as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  I am a child of the one true King and for me, I go to the bible to find the truth and the right thing to do and will stand behind it but would never disrespect anyone for any reason or use my mouth as a weapon of mass destruction.  All I ask is that you do the same for me in return. 

As for the post on the news fb page that got like 200 likes (who cares)which I wrote concerning this subject, I have since deleted it.  I certainly hope that if the testing comes around again, I can act more like Jesus and just sit back and love on my friends no matter what they are going through or the stance they decide to take. 

Learn Quickly

In life, this is a repetitive theme. Learn quickly. Realize a wrong turn and correct your direction before you get too far down the road.  After a bible study this morning on the subject, it started my brain thinking.  I would think back to when we were kids and our parents had to teach us this same thing. I also thought back to when my son was young and I was the teacher.

We live on a farm so child proofing is out of the question.  In order to keep him safe, instead of removing the obstacles, he would have to learn what and where was safe and what he should avoid.  He turned two in the spring and we were ready for a lot of outside time.  I brought him outside and pointed out the electric fence that separates the yard from the rest of the farm.

“Do not touch this. This is an electric fence. It will shock you and hurt you. You will cry if you do.” 

At that instant I knew his wheels were turning in there.  Why can’t I touch it? It doesn’t look “electric”. Maybe it won’t shock me like she says…    It only took a day or two for that child to reach out and grab it. To his benefit, our fences weren’t as strong as they should be and I knew that if he did end up getting into it, the shock would be minimal. And it did shock. He cried. I was relieved. I thought well that takes care of that. Now he knows and will avoid this fence in the future.  The problem with parenting is our lack of ability to think like a child.  What I didn’t anticipate was his thought that well, the fence over here is bad, maybe the one over there won’t shock me.  Here we go again.  I saw the arm reach out before I even had a chance to get the words out of my mouth.  He was shocked, he cried. This would happen just one more time until his brain decided that all wire attached to poles surrounding field is off limits.  Learn quickly.

As we grow up, our parents hand over the reins and we have to learn on our own which fences are electric and which aren’t.  It’s a lot harder when you don’t have someone coming right out and telling you what’s safe and what isn’t and giving instant correction when we reach for the wrong thing. Even though I have an Owner’s Manual in ESV version to tell me, I still need to practice learning quickly.