Thirty Day Challenge – Day Twenty – Discontent with Others

Greetings Dear Reader,

“Father, please show me my sin.”

I often, less more than in the past, do not know when to stop.  I have many times said just the right thing to help someone see God’s love for them more clearly then ruined it by expecting them to behave as I think they should behave.  I am good at seeing what someone needs and connecting with that.  Then I try to push them into application which is not my job.  I usurp the role of the Holy Spirit when I do this.  He can do this far better than I can and when I do it I usually exasperate the person I am trying to help.

It is my sin I need to change not anyone else’s.  If I focus on following Christ and loving others and then work at killing my own sin I will have little time left to try and force others to follow in the way I think they should be following.  It is my job to set the example, show the love, and let God do the talking.  I am so often deterred from my actual intent by wanting to make things better.  In my trying to do so I often drown out the truth I have spoken that truly connects to another.

Prayer of Saint Francis – Sarah McLachlan

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon:

where there is doubt, faith ;

where there is despair, hope

where there is darkness, light

where there is sadness, joy

O divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."