Ever Notice?

Has anyone else noticed that everyone says to '"be yourself", "share what you are feeling", etc.....but what they really mean is "share what you are feeling as long as that is what I want to hear and it doesn't make me uncomfortable".

Quite honestly I have spent alot of my life not saying what I wanted to say for fear of it offending someone else. I think that as a society we have gotten really good at faking it so someone else won't be able to look down on us for being "intolerant". Well I am finally fed up. I am what I am. The only person I have to please is the Lord. The only thing that matters is what he thinks of me. I don't see anywhere is the Bible tht Jesus was afraid of speaking truth because it might offend someone. And aren't we supposed to be like him? And I am not talking about just going out and being hateful or deliberatley hurting people. I just feel that if everyone else has the freedom to be able to speak up and tell me what they don't think I should say, then I have the same freedom (in Christ, and in our great country) to do the same.

I think the world would be a much different place if we as Christians hadn't allowed the world to tell us to "shut up". So while the world, or maybe even you might not agree with me, the beautiful thing is that I can still be me and share what is going on in my head, heart & life.

One quick reminder.....everyone out there has different life experiences that have shaped and molded them into who they are. I believe that we all have the capability to improve and be better people. But I think it is a detriment to relationships and to people when we compare ourselves to each other and then expect someone to feel the way we feel, or to do what we would do. Because that is when judgemental and critical thoughts come. And who knows what God has planned for someone else. I think it just might be Gods business, not ours. With that said, I would like to encourage everyone reading that if we would first seek God and his plan for our lives, and then live in the peace that accompanies Gods will, we might be less inclined to offend or be offended when we don't understand what God is doing in others.

I keep thinking about the scripture that talks about the speck and the plank. I know that I have fallen into the trap of looking at what other people need to change or work on when I have a HUGE mess in my own life. How different our lives, our families, our churches, our communities would be if we would just take care of our own business with the Lord and let God do his thing in others. And in the process remember to love on people the way God would.

This blog is totally for me. It may help someone else but today I am writing this to myself. There is so much to work on that I might as well put up some caution tape and traffic cones. LOL

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I don not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Phillipians 3:12-14