One of the dangers of writing
reminiscent style stories is having your children read them and remind you that
your memory isn’t quite as good as you thought it was.
Teresa told me that her laughing
moment came when I was videoing the wedding preparation for Ken and Wendy’s
wedding. Carla and a good friend, Nita,
often worked together on decorations. As
a team they were hard to beat – both were able to add to the other’s ideas.
Now, according to Teresa – and
her dear ‘ole’ Dad can’t challenge it because he can’t remember it – at all – I
was videotaping the women as they went about decorating. I was focusing on Carla as she was on a
ladder, only to realize, after she had come down, it was Nita! In my defense, they do look a lot alike,
kinda sorta if you aren’t looking all that close.
Not sure where the video is,
right now, probably buried in a box somewhere that the kids will dig up after we
are gone.
Not as hot today, but
windy. Will take it. Carla just came in from the garden and
brought with her a bucket of cherry sized tomatoes (not cherry tomatoes,
different kind, but same size.) It is
like eating candy and you just can’t stop.
2 Corinthians
10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves
with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves,
and comparing themselves among themselves, are not
wise.
There is a real danger when
people surround themselves only with people that agree with them, no matter
what. These ‘yes’ men give a person the
feeling that they are invulnerable; others are less because they do not have
that euphoria of an adoring entourage.
Instead of a healthy discussion
of whatever the issues may be, everyone has to agree with the person in charge
or they lose status and maybe even their position.
We need challenges, we need
variety – what we don’t need is dissension caused by pride, greed, envy or other
emotions that instead of helping solve the problem they enhance it.
There must be unison of the
heart where all sincerely want to get the mission done to the best of everyone’s
ability. It cannot be done alone; it
cannot be done every time at the expense of compromise; especially when it comes
to the primary structure of Christian life.
It is so easy for us to become
self-absorbed in this world. To focus on
accomplishments and pat ourselves on the back and let others extoll our
virtues. We become self-satisfied and
under estimate the wisdom and advice of others, ‘because we know it all.’ Our way becomes the only way and all others
are wrong.
Most Christian Denominations
have the basics in common; it is usually small variations that make the
difference, and when we place those aside we find that the core beliefs are what
really matter. When we are in agreement
with those we can stand united in the world.
The ‘disagreements’ are often just a matter of personal ‘tastes,’ which
makes a Christian more comfortable in one body of believers over another.
When we get so wrapped up in our
idea that we cannot allow others to ask questions or voice concerns, we are
isolating ourselves and thus can only compare ourselves, with ourselves and lose
sight of working for God and Him alone in unison with others.
My profession was/is law
enforcement. Most of us are very
conservative and have black and white perspectives on the law and life in
general. There are a few who do not
share the same thoughts, but because they are in a minority within the group
often don’t voice their insights.
We had one such sergeant in our
Office. His insights helped us with
defining our Office. We often didn’t
agree, but we were ‘forced’ into considering what we were doing and justifying
our plan. Frankly, we didn’t change much
of what we were doing, but it did open our eyes to other avenues.
I was fortunate, I have a strong
personality and can be a bit hard headed, however, I had some good people
working with me that brought me up short when I was heading off base; I am
thankful for their guidance.
We don’t want to allow
disrespect or bad teaching into our Christian community, but we also don’t want
to be so sure of ourselves that in the end, not only do we fail, but we have
failed God.
There is so much going on in
this world that is a direct attack on God, His Word, His Son and His people that
we want to maximize our strengths and minimize our differences. I know there is some great divides when it
comes to social issues, some of that is a difference of opinion and some of it
is a sell out to the world – we need to be able to realize the difference and
unite with other Christians to combat the course of evil that has taken hold in
this world and our country.
Later, Art :-)
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