Who Looks Back
We can encourage others not in being disingenuous
but by putting on the best face we have and pushing on to be a better person.
When I was a child…
1Corinthians 13:11 “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. 13 But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”
There are things adults should do—grow up is one of those things. In our world around us, we have far too many adults who are still in the childish stage. In their world life is all about them—but it isn’t.
For some reason when people see announcements of old people who have anniversaries of fifty or more years you often hear the comment such as, “they don’t make them like that anymore”.
It’s as if people from that era were just destined to stay together and the long life together fairy doesn’t exist any longer. Yet, if you question people who have been together for long periods of time I doubt any one of them would say it had always been easy.
Marriage as well as any commitment has up and down moments. I write this to encourage others to hold fast to commitments. For the people who say things like we fell out of love…excuse me, people don’t really fall in or out of love.
One of the interesting items in life is how we can grow together as we age. There are any number of marriage improvement books on the market. When I was young there were several and I’m sure there have been many written since. The bottom line is it takes two people working to make their marriage work.
I say this because the childish behavior of people, not one generation only but generation upon generation, is making a mess of the world. Folks who should understand the importance of what they are doing don’t. I don’t watch t.v. often—I don’t even know if it is a t.v. show, but on a few occasions, I’ve seen some “Judge Judy” shows.
Some of them are amazing at how foolish people can be however, the saddest cases are where young (should be) adults are acting like children who have made babies, and now what?
There was a time long gone now when society supported decent morality. As I wrote, that time is long gone now and often there is no support. Marriage was protection for women and children before feminism declared it to be an antiquated form of slavery.
Now, women and children become chattels of the government in such situations where there is no father. Statistics are making us more aware of how much children need both good fathers and good mothers in their homes.
There are things adults should not do—grow old is one of those things. Yes, our bodies will age but we should never lose the wonder we had as a child. The wonder of a new day, a new project, a new adventure.
In watching children grow we as adults are still privy to some of the miracles that happen around us. We can watch the wonder in their faces as they watch caterpillars turn into butterflies.
We can see the miracle of day turning into night or night turning into day. As a young mother, I remember a teenage girl admitting that she was watching me as a role model.
I was humbled at the time yet in looking back I wish I had been more centered in my life at that time. She didn’t know nor did I know how much I had to learn and how far I had to grow.
Thankfully people don’t always know the internal struggles a person has and there is something to be said for that. We can encourage others not in being disingenuous, but by putting on the best face we have and pushing on to be a better person.
As I wonder how I’ve come as far as I have and not become as disenchanted with the world and people as my mother and sister did I suppose that’s the reason.
It would be lovely if—if things could be made perfect, if life gave back the good that you gave it, if people didn’t betray those they love or don’t love those that they should love. But life isn’t like that. Life can and often is harsh and hard even in the best circumstances.
But we aren’t measured by what life gives us. We are measured by what we give. The scriptures tell us how to live, what God expects of us, and the more we study the more we know and the more we grow. There are other aspects of what should and/or should not be done.
There is no one-time try and you have it all down. It’s like climbing a rock wall, step by step, handhold by handhold. There are days when we do well and times when we slip and fall, but at the end of our life when we look in the mirror will we be pleased…will God be pleased with who looks back?
James 1:
21 Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.
23 For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror:
24 for he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But he that looketh into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing.
