Good morning, world. Things are looking pretty good from the front porch of my farm in Virginia today. I met with the CEO of my Life on this new day of this new week with great Anticipation for the Plans (and Lessons) He has for me. When I met with my Maker, He gave me Direction by way of my Instruction Manual with Words that took on a Life of their own this morning. All I ever need to do is LOOK to be Directed, and LONG to be all that He Created me to be, and when I do, He Speaks Love, Truth, and Wisdom into my Heart, and I find my Peace with Life no matter what’s going on around me. When I looked at the trees budding out around this old farm, I thought about how so many of them were planted by Him (and not by me), and when God does the planting, there isn’t a “landscape” plan as we know it. Trees that produce one color are placed close to trees that will produce another color, and eventually, they’ll grow very close together. They’ll share the same water and the same air peacefully, and they won’t try to be bigger or better than the other. What a sweet reminder to me this morning, straight from the Throne of the Living God, that if the trees can live peacefully with others “not like them” that are taking up space, air, and water, then surely I can too. Isn’t that the way you look at Peace?

It can be so easy to lose patience and to throw out our best parenting advice when we see a spoiled child raging to have its own way. They scream until they turn red, and they have no regard for their behavior or what impact it’s having on the people around them. They want what they want when they want it, and they believe that if they just scream loud enough and make a big enough scene, they’ll eventually have their own way. It’s never easy to witness the behavior of a spoiled child, that’s for sure. But when you think about it, we aren’t a whole lot different than those spoiled ones, even though (sometimes) our behavior is a little more “civilized” in grown-up form. We convince ourselves that we deserve to have this or that, or that we don’t deserve to be treated this way or that way, and even people of Faith aren’t afraid to speak up like a spoiled child when they think they’ve been wronged. It’s a piece of cake to be on good behavior with other people as long as they’re on good behavior with us. But when we’re treated in a way we don’t think we deserve, or we don’t get what we think we DO deserve, it’s an entirely different story for most. When it comes to people of Faith, there are much Higher stakes tied to our behavior than that of the spoiled child. Our behavior will either be a Reflection of our Faith and an Honor to the Living God OR a shameful representation of what Christians are supposed to be. I don’t presume to know the mind of God, but I can’t help but wonder if He looks at us like spoiled brats too every time we fight to have our own way in this dark world with no regard for who’s watching.

It’s not enough to “talk the talk” of our Faith, and it’s not enough to be at church every time the doors are open, and it’s not enough to quote scripture. It’s who we are in Christ that matters, and it’s how we Live that makes the difference in a dark world. Opportunities to Shine like the stars are often lost in our battle to have what we believe we deserve. Sometimes people of Faith lie to themselves, and they believe they’re justified when they stand up to people “not like them”…but they’re wrong. It’s the people “not like us,” the lost people, the suffering souls that need to be eye-witness to our Faith more than anybody else on the planet, AND they’re the ones we leave in the dust when they don’t treat us the way we believe we “deserve” to be treated. The Bible says “make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness, no one will see the Lord.” I’ll be making every effort today to Live out my Faith no matter who I encounter or how I’m treated…because I know that what matters MOST to the Most High God is not how someone else treats me, but how I treat them ESPECIALLY when I’m wronged.

How about you?

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” – John 13:35