Romans 14:19 says, "Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification."
Oh, no . Jo is starting out with an impossible dream! Well, maybe not impossible, but doggone hard!
Well, Jo has good reason to start out with this maybe not impossible, but definitely hard lesson. I recently got caught with a good case of Douglas Pride!
Let me begin with a story which is really a confession: Over Memorial Day, Jerry and I headed down to a small town in Wisconsin, my sister, Judy driving, for a chance to visit another sister, Shirley. The two sisters had for years shared the responsibility of caring for the graves of the Douglas family and visited the graves together every Memorial Day.
The Douglas Family had a strong inclination for pride, not unlike many other families, but just louder about it.!
It was a lovely day and as we went from grave-stone to grave-stone we swept away leaves, tended to plantings, and worried over the scale which forms on old stone.
They handed me a tool something like a dandelion digger and asked me to carefully remove what scale I could from the stone we stood in front of that very moment. I bent to do the job and almost immediately one of them corrected me as I moved the tool too eagerly against the stone.
I gave up. Neither scale nor dirt would call me back to those grave-stones. They are precious in the sight of caretakers. I didn't want to be responsible for anything but enjoying the sunshine. And (I am not happy to add) my pride!
You guessed it. My pride had taken a terrible blow. I could not tend the gravestone correctly. I, the eldest, could not scrape the gravestone correctly.
I am very glad that I am loved so much by my sisters. Truly, I did not deserve it that day. At any rate, eventually I recognized my mistakes which humbled me considerably. How grateful I am to them for putting up with my prideful self stumbling through the day. (Can you believe it?) I was once again like a child unaware of the beauty of belonging to God, back to the day of unbelief and the lack of forgiveness.
But, God is good all the time, not just when I am able to remember God's Way is best. And His way is not a shaming prideful way, but the way of acceptance and forgiveness. God's Way..it's a Gift!
So, I hope you are not troubled by pride, being too arrogant to accept the fact that you don't know everything! I know you're not like that! But, if you are human, you might be full of pride once and awhile. If so, just laugh it off and accept yourself as imperfect. God already knows it, so we might as well admit it!
I admit it! I admit it! I am imperfect! But, God loves me anyway!! Yeah!
And He is loving you, too, as I am!
Jo of MN. once again.
