Ripples in the Water
Watch a stone as it hits the water. It makes ripples. Now toss two stones in at once, and then watch as the ripples cross and then merge together, making larger ripples covering more surface. The same can be true of our thinking. To change the world we have to change one life -- ours. We have to line our thinking up with God's thinking. We have to line our lives up with God's way for our lives. The beginning of this, the only way to do this is by learning from God. When we're young we're taught by our parents and extended family first. We're flawed when we're very young, by this alone. I am not faulting parents and families. I am a parent and have an AMAZING family, myself. But I am flawed, therefore I taught flawed premises to my own children, which they must learn to overcome one day. Then as we get older we're taught by pastors and teachers....again we become even more flawed, because these people are flawed and flaws teach flaws. It's a vicious cycle to be honest, unless we make a vow to ourselves to change things....to be better people, to follow God and not just someone's impression of God. God gave us free will, I think, because He knew we would be flawed, and would need to decide for ourselves how to best fulfill God's will in our lives. I can't choose for you and you can't choose for me. We have to decide what's right in our spirits, for our spirits. We have to decide what and who to believe, for ourselves. We have to choose for ourselves.
Jeremiah 17:10 even to give every man according to his ways.....I did a thesaurus search of the word way. Wow there are pages of words with similar or the same meaning as the word "way". What a vague word. One word used similarly to this word is "understanding". "Thoughts" is another word. "Abilities" is yet another. According to our understanding is how God gives to us. Sometimes we're given before our understanding comes. Sometimes we have the understanding well before the gift, but regardless, we're given based on this understanding; based on these abilities, based on these thoughts we have. If I don't have your thoughts I can't be given your gifts. If you don't have my understanding, how can you fully enjoy and live in my gifts?
I have weaned myself off my pain meds. with minimal withdrawal. This took several months, but I did it. I did it with God and on my own without my doctor. I do NOT recommend anyone else do this by themselves, but for me it was right. My doctor wouldn't hear me when I asked about my liver, or kidneys while being on these meds., so I took the matter of MY LIFE into MY OWN HANDS. I placed my health into God's hands solely, and I haven't regretted it yet. The snag came when I realized the pain medications were masking other problems, or rather causing other problems. I won't know for sure for a while yet. I pray the meds are the cause, so as this junk gets out of my system, and my body detoxifies, it will get healthier. That's logical thinking, right? So why don't so many people understand that our health is our responsibilities? It's like our lives' journeys. They are a personal endeavor each of us takes. If we place our hopes and joys in our doctors' abilities, we will be disappointed. If we place our security in the police, military or government, we will be disappointed. If we place our treasures in banks, we will be disappointed. They are run by other flawed humans. But if we place these things into God's hand, the hand that created all other hands and knows better how to handle such things, we can't be disappointed. I have never been disappointed by this. We were created to worship God, not to worry about how our life on Earth is handled. We were created to show God's love to all. God IS love, so it's pretty difficult to live a life filled with love, when we don't take the time to learn the real nature and depths of God's love.
Only when we learn how the ripples cross, grow and merge, can we learn to live in harmony with each other. My life intersects many other people's lives. Your life intersects with many other lives. Eventually, fairly quickly in fact, our lives become intertwined by our ripples. I can't judge you for the choices you make. That is between you and God, so why do so many people feel the need to judge me for my life's choices? I don't mean choices that truly affect others (like driving on the proper side of the road, or whether or not to take my trash to the dump-those things do directly affect my neighbors), I mean choices in how I live. I cannot tell my neighbors when to or if they should water their gardens, that is part of their journey to make. Each has to learn for oneself that seeds need watered to live. And each has to learn what happens when we do and don't water them. So stop and think before we decide that we have the know on the ONLY way to live and worship and believe. Maybe we're ALL right, and ALL wrong........Just something to think about the next time we feel the need to judge someone else's choices.
Ask God your questions...you will be led correctly. Love someone not in spite of their flaws, but rather because of them, for those flaws help make others the amazing people we are. Most of all....Go be physical today! Tomorrow never comes.
Peace
Thank you for your post.
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