Is your house clean? As my 10 year old daughter and I have battled over her room this week, we have had this typical back and forth....
"Lily- is your room clean?"
"YES MOM!!! Of course it is."
But when I inspect, I see the clutter in the corners and under the bed and on the dresser. She doesn't see that. She sees that it is MUCH better than it was when I started nagging her. She sees that there is actually a path from the door to the closet that one can walk without tripping. She sees CLEAN.
How often do we think our lives are clean? How often do we say to ourselves, "I am a good person. I helped at the soup kitchen this week and with that prayer group. I pray every day and read my Bible. I serve others and the Lord. I teach my children good values. I have my priorities in order. I am a good steward of our family finances. I tithe."
How would GOD view our lives if He walked into our 'room of thinking'? Is our thought life pure? God expects THAT of us too- much as I expect Lily to clean all the corners of her room. Even if we don't say it, do we think, "Oh- that lady with the tattoos must be on welfare. Look at her dirty little kids. I wonder if she's an alcoholic." Do we think of other men when our husbands irritate us? Do we covet our neighbor's home or vehicle, wishing we had what they have? Those are all sins you know. I also know we sometimes forget that those things count (like the socks hanging out of the drawer).
The key is to be held accountable. The more times I go to Lily and point out the things that are unacceptable in the cleanliness of her room, the more accustomed she will become to knowing and realizing those things. If Grandma tells her, and her Dad tells her and her friends tell her, she will know, and it will become second nature to clean the corners too.
So it is with our Christian walk, and our Christian responsibility to others. We need to be open to the advice of fellow Christians. We need to hear their words on what is acceptable and not acceptable. We too need to help our brothers and sisters in Christ realize their errant ways. We need to approach this in a Christ-like manner- but we need to be bold and help them see. The more often they see, the less likely they are to stray. The less likely they are to know the unacceptable. This, my friends, is LOVE. Love them enough....love them enough to help them.
In light of all of this information, the bottom line is this....IT IS IMPORTANT TO SURROUND YOURSELF WITH CHRISTIANS. As recievers, we need to know that the advice and information that is coming in is Christ -like and from God.
I keep going back to a line I've heard a million times, but never really understood the full impact of until recently.....What you put IN is what will come OUT. As my walk strengthens, and I strive to live more as Christ would have me do, I find it less acceptable to put IN things that I don't want to come out. I try to fill myself with Godly music, literature and relationships. I try to avoid more secular influences, much as a recovering alcoholic tries to avoid the bar, or a fat girl avoids the Dairy Queen.
In my defense, if you continue to hear a curse word from me from time to time, remember, I put a lot of BAD in there for a long time, and some of it still leaks out on occasion! Praise God----I'm working on it!