Day 49 and judging

Goals

1. closer relationship to God- Today was II Corinthians chapter 10. To me this chapter talks about judging people by their appearance. Paul was accused by false apostles as not really being a Chrisitan. The false apostles told the people of Corinth that Paul’s letters were forceful but in person Paul was weak and his speech was of “no account”. Paul responds that they should not mistake a mild manner for weakness. Think about all that Paul endured, stoning, beatings, imprisonment. Can this man be called weak? Paul lived for Christ, his only mission after being saved, was to spread the Gospel. Do you ever find yourself judging a book by its cover? Have you ever found yourself judging a Christian by their outward appearance, or acting in a way you don’t think they should? I know that I have in the past. When I find myself acting in this way, Mathew 7:1 always pops into my head, “judge not, that ye may not be judged”. I never want God to judge me for the same.
2. Get Fit/Strong- today was upper body day. I did regular bench press with 100 pounds, 3 sets of 6. I did upright rows, Peck deck pull downs, overhead pull downs all 3 sets of 10 and shoulder shrugs with 40 lb kettle bells 3 sets of 10
3. House- went through more throw rugs today in the basement and washed some to take upstairs.
4. Write- I spent 15 minutes working on my writing
5. Camper Reno- Videos

Judging others

I think as a society we all have the habit of quickly characterizing people. We see them or meet them and they do not act like we expect or look like we expect, we quickly characterize them and possibly dismiss them. I have been guilty of this in the past. I was much more judgmental of people than I am now. I am not talking about race; I mean outward appearances. I am not sure why I did this but as I have aged, this is a trait I have worked to get out of myself. I do not like it at all. As a child in Sunday school, my aunt was our teacher. We had to memorize passages in the Bible. Mathew 7:1-3 was one of those verses that always stuck with me. It would not be until I was much older that I understood exactly what this verse meant. I do not want to stand before the Lord and be judged on the petty things that I have judged others on in my past. What I have learned over the years is that everyone has a story and everyone is someone’s child. Being a mother has changed the way I look at people. You never really know how someone got to where they are now. Regardless of how people act or look, they are still valuable to someone else out there and they are still one of God’s children. I am by no means perfect and trying to find the good in people is something that I struggle with. I would be the first to tell you that I am not a people person but it is something that I am working on. I believe our main purpose in life to learn to be more like Jesus. Jesus embraced all, the people that his society shunned were the people he sought out. The one overriding premise in the Bible is that God is love. We are to love our neighbors and this has been the hardest for me. I work on it every day. What has helped me was the realization that God created me and you for the sole purpose of loving us. This was a humbling realization. I am given unconditional love for no reason. Given this, I can expend a small bit out to people. Everyone has a purpose and every one can teach us, sometimes they teach us how to act. If you look at everyone in this light it makes it easier to learn from them. I am sure this is something I will continue to work on. But, remembering that even that person you do not want to be around is someone important to God too can make it easier. Try looking at people with this perspective and see if it changes it for you. It did for me. Think about it, have you ever done anything and immediately though ” I shouldn’t have done that”. Or maybe cut someone off in traffic and apologized out loud in your car to them? You are having a day from hell; you don’t know how you are going to get everything done before you have to get to work and then the school calls. Your child is puking and needs picked up ASAP. You jump in your car and are ticking off what you need to pick up from the store for them, ginger ale, popsicles etc as you are backing out of your drive. You hear the horn. Throw your hand up in an apologetic way and speed down the road. You have a story right. We all do, keep that in mind when someone cuts you off in traffic or in line. Could be that they are just a rude person or could be they have a story.