2 Timothy 3:16 “God has breathed life into all of Scripture. It is useful for teaching us what is true. It is useful for correcting our mistakes. It is useful for making our lives whole again. It is useful for training us to do what is right.” (NIRV)

Boy did this hit home! I think I can check each one of those examples off:

**** Teaching us what is true ****
I cannot begin to explain how much I’ve learned from the Bible in the past 2 1/2 years while coming closer to Christ. From patience to forgiveness to modesty, you’d think that since I went to Catholic school, I would know all this stuff (I’m now what they call a “recovering Catholic” and that’s a WHOLE nother blog post that frankly I’d rather not write…lol).

**** Useful for correcting our mistakes ****
Boy have I made some hefty ones! I am reminded of Matthew 5:23-24: “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.” (NASB)

**** Useful for making our lives whole again ****
This is especially helpful after realizing the mistakes I made. Hebrews 10:17 says, “I [the Lord] will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.” (NLT) This verse gives me that “whole” feeling.

**** Training us to do what is right ****
This one I seem to check over and over again. My flesh usually wants to behave a certain way - you know, the bitter-in-your-face-way. But in the end, the Holy Spirit works on my heart and wins (thank God!).
For example, I was in WalMart shopping by myself last week and heard a child crying on the other end of the aisle. She looked to be about Corinne’s size and she was with her dad, who was probably in his way early 20’s. He was not trying to calm her down, but instead was saying, “stop the crying games you f*ing little b**ch!” Next thing I knew, he was speed walking away at what seemed to be 25 miles an hour. You can imagine the enormous rock that seemed to form in my stomach from hearing such hateful words - especially since it was directed at a helpless toddler. My flesh wanted to march right over to him and smack him (okay, punch him) silly, snatch the darling little angel up, and carry her off home. Realistically, I’d probably be charged with assault & kidnapping. Furthermore, how would that show him God’s love? How would that help the little girl? It wouldn’t. I wanted to do *something* and was reminded of Proverbs 31:8 - “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed.” (NLT) So, after snapping out of it (I think I even had to blink myself out of the shock), I followed him…and caught up with him in the frozen veggie aisle, where he FINALLY stopped…and where his daughter was still crying. “Excuse me?” No response. “Excuse me?” Again, no response. This time a little louder, “Excuse me?” He turned around confused and I immediately started talking. “I just wanted to say that I know what it’s like with children. I have three at home and know they can be frustrating. Sometimes I wonder how I have any hair left.” I tried to force a casual chuckle… “I wanted to know if there was anything I could do…would you mind if I gave her a lollipop? That seems to calm my kids down when they’re having a rough time.” I pulled a couple pops from my *emergency stash* in my purse. The dad just stared at me blankly…”Uh, sure.” Meanwhile, the little blondie stopped crying and slowly accepted the purple lollipop without taking her eyes away from mine. “You are just the cutest little girl and I hope this makes you a little happier.” I ended up giving him an extra one just in case she needed it later (and what I really wanted to say was, “Here’s one for you, you big jerk…perhaps it will sweeten your attitude a little…” But I didn’t.) I smiled, told him to have a good day, and returned to my shopping - about 10 aisles back. When I got in the car, I broke down. Literally…sitting in the parking lot, crying. I prayed that God would keep that little girl safe…emotionally and physically. I prayed that He would guard her heart, protect her spirit. And I prayed that God would give her dad peace.
In short, it’s hard to do the right thing. Because sometimes (if not most of the time), we are forced to get out of our comfort zone in order to do so. Princess Diana once said: “You can’t comfort the afflicted without afflicting the comfortable.”

Tags: Compassion, God, Past Memories, Patience, Troubles

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Brittany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.