July Newletter article

Oh be careful little mouth...

Life for the Jellison household has been emotional lately. Sarah has said numerous times, "You try being pregnant". With no response from me until recently when I started replying, "You try being a husband to a pregnant woman". There seems to be a lot of emotions circulating not just for us but for a lot of people lately. There are different issues and things that need to be resolved and instead of brainstorming and figuring out ways to resolve them people have been blamestorming around. It does few people any good to complain and gripe about things without bring a solution to the table. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 14:6-9 (The Message):

"What's important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God's sake; if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you're a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It's God we are answerable to—all the way from life to death and everything in between—not each other. That's why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other."

We are all so persistent in letting others know how we feel and making sure that our opinions are known. However, that is "unChristian". Again in Romans 14:10-12 (The Message)

So where does that leave you when you criticize a brother? And where does that leave you when you condescend to a sister? I'd say it leaves you looking pretty silly—or worse. Eventually, we're all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgment, facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren't going to improve your position there one bit.

Goethe puts it best in this quote:

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you will help them become what they are capable of.

We can use our freedoms, given to us by all those who fought and gave their lives and fought and came home, to uplift and help those around us become better people. Or we can use those freedoms to tear down others and hurt them.

Life and death. Encouragement or disdain. Your freedoms are just that. Yours. You have to use them as Christ told us to and Love those around you just as much as you love yourself.

I will leave you with this verse that it may be true of us all as we strive to love each other better:

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
-Phil. 4:8