The other night I was reading one of my daily devotionals called Discovering God's Daily Agenda, and the scripture of the day was Obadiah 1:11. I just want to quote some of the devo to you,
"What is your reaction to newspaper headlines about the CEO whose empire has crumbled due to unethical accounting practices? What about the athlete whose career ended abruptly due to a test that came back positive for steroids? How about the family down the street whose teenage son--unsupervised by his parents for so many years--was just arrested?
Our own heart's condition is revealed by how we treat those who have fallen. A hardened heart is indifferent about, or even rejoices in, another's calamity. A contrite heart--a heart that knows its own sin, that knows that 'there but for the grace of God go I,' a heart filled with Christlike compassion and love--breaks for those who stumble.
How does one's heart become more like Christ's? God is the One who opens our eyes to our own sin and pride... by bringing us to the cross to ponder the price paid for our sins... and by washing us clean with His forgiving love. A heart humbled by its own sin extends grace and love rather than judgment to those who fall."
I love that last line. That devotional really struck home with me, and I think that it probably does with most people. I feel as though I have been on the "fallen" side of things the past couple years, and it is so hard to be kicked when you're down. The only thing that would get me through was Christ's love and Him extending His love through my family.
I catch myself a lot lately thinking, "I don't know the whole story," or "Who am I?". I have countless times judged and criticized others for their shortcomings, but who am I to do so? Isn't the act of judging another person a shortcoming in itself?
We need to extend Christ's love especially to those who have fallen and those who are struggling. We've all had low points and just think of how it felt when Christ's love was shown through someone, and then think of how it felt when it wasn't. Let's work to fill our heart's with Christ's love so we can be the high point during someone's struggle by showing them God's grace instead of throwing another stone and being the reason they stay down longer.
We need to LOVE. Not only people we personally know but everyone. Strangers. Celebrities. Everyone seems to have an opinion on the lives of movie stars, athletes, musicians, etc.--especially me sometimes. In the words of the great Michael Jackson, "People don't stop to think what they're saying sometime and the effect it can have on a person." No matter how famous or how rich, everyone is just a human, a sinning human, but still very much deserving of the love of our Savior.
All in all, this devo really got to me because it is something that I personally need to work on, and it is also something that I have felt the effects of recently. So let's humble ourselves, own up to our personal sin, and extend Jesus' love instead of judgment to those who have fallen. Because who are we to judge?
Thank you, Mom, for teaching me to always unplug things such as my toaster, hair dryer, and straightener when I am done using them even if they're turned off. So my valentine's day got off to a marvelous start. I used the bathroom outside my room, squirted a couple shots of hand sanitizer on my palms because I'm all out of hand soap, then sprinted up the stairs to see if my food was done. While I was in the kitchen, I heard the sound of water running downstairs, and I got really confused as to why I would've left the sink running. It instantly hit me that I never used the sink so I immediately bounded down the stairs hoping that it wasn't what I thought. Without hesitation, I rushed into the bathroom, and the immediate soaking of my sock confirmed my dreaded guess before I even saw the toilet. Much not to my surprise, the toilet had backed up for the third time in two weeks for no apparent reason. With urgency, I sloshed through the water and reached for the knob behind the toilet to stop Bathroom Pond from expanding into Basement Lake. My eyes dashed across the bathroom floor for anything needing to be rescued. I picked up my bag and placed it into the bathtub without too much concern for its health. As I looked behind the bathroom door, I saw my hairdryer. Drowning in water. Whoops? Thankful that it was my hairdryer that I had been contemplating replacing because of its recent lack of effort and not my expensive straightener, I scooped it up and took it to the hallway to dry it off. While taking off my sopping wet socks and drying my toilet water infested blow dryer, I realized that this could've been a bad situation had my hair dryer been plugged in. Mesi, Jezi, for keeping me safe, and thank you, Mama Jo, for making it a habit for me to unplug everything. Lesson of the day: unplug things when you're done & don't set your blow dryer on the ground because your crappy (haha) toilet might turn into a flowing water fountain when you least expect it. Plus side: I got a new toilet installed today thanks to RESGI. & I'm out.
So first off I just wanted to say that I still can't get enough of the Little Darth Vader commercial from the Super Bowl. It always puts a smile on my face. So cute. :)
Anyways... some good moments in the last couple weeks. My little brother Corey had his senior night for basketball. Senior night. I can't believe he's a senior. During that game he also hit a three quarter court shot at the buzzer of the first quarter -- his first points of the senior night game. If you missed it, it was shown last night on the local news channel KWWL. Here's the link Corey's 3/4 court shot. He also scored his 1,000th career point vs Colo-Nesco. They play their first round of districts next Thursday vs Tripoli at Tripoli at 7pm... you should go!! If we don't come out with the W I'm going to be all tears I think because that'll be the last time I watch my brother play high school ball.
Short & Sweet. Off to order some Pita Pit because I am starvinggg. :)
