A small departure

Today at lunch someone mentioned this article posted in 2015 and I decided to re-post instead of what I had planned for today it as it brought up memories of the good, the bad, the ugly and redemption.

I saw a clip from an old movie recently, it was an old Beach Blanket movie, you know the ones. Looking at her, the idol of my sixth-grade childhood I remembered the day I heard the news that Annette Funicello had died, I cried.

When I was young I would have given anything to have blond hair and blue eyes, and until Annette Funicello came along on the Mousketeers, I was unhappy with myself! She changed the way I looked at myself! We all have someone that we wanted to be like “when we grew up” and sometimes we found that our heroes were really just big zeros! Sometimes the people we have looked up to turn out to be the biggest sinners, in our eyes, but my constant prayer is: Open my eyes Lord, open my ears, let me see myself the way YOU see me. Help me not to judge others for who they are and what they do, just let me be the best person I can be!

Matthew 7:1-5 “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, and criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

Sometimes it’s hard to know the difference between “judging” someone, or, as we used to say back in the day, being a “fruit inspector”, but there are times that I see someone do something that I know will result in a tragedy, but they do not want to be warned. We will criticize someone for doing something that we will turn around and do, but we think it looks different on us, it doesn’t.

God is faithful, if you ask Him to help you, He will! More from Matthew 7:“Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love would be even better? Do you want to know what’s coming for your life? What God wants and will do for you?

Psalm 25:12-15 Who are those who fear the LORD? He will show them the path they should choose. They will live in prosperity, and their children will inherit the land. The LORD is a friend to those who fear him. He teaches them his covenant. My eyes are always on the LORD, for he rescues me from the traps of my enemies. We can’t live our lives in the fear that something terrible is going to happen that we don’t know. We trust in God!

Psalm 91:14-16 The LORD says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name. When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them. I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.”

I would love to be a little child again, protected by my parents, but since I can’t, I will say, “the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want!“