I remember my mother calling out to my brother as he left the house, “Be good and have a nice time.” Joe turned and replied, “Mom, make up your mind.” There is a conflict for all of us in the choices we make- what is good in God’s eye and what is going to give us pleasure now. It is a decision we are faced with every day and every day I learn that I am a sinner.
Luckily, we can remember the old adage- Practice makes perfect. In my Sunday school teaching days, we did an exercise with the kids to recall their good, bad and Godly moments for the week. What a great exercise! It made us all look for, and recognize, moments of God’s presence in our daily life. Usually that moment could be defined by a person showing compassion for another- for a stranger, a classmate, a neighbor, or a lost dog.
Keep practicing compassion, keep looking for the need of God’s love, keep being the “hands and feet” of Jesus in the world today. It is amazing that in the commandment for us to be perfect, there is the trust that we can do it. We have been gifted a path through faith in Christ to be perfect, to be whole and fulfilled in His love.
Krista,
Thanks for sharing the exercise of looking for good, bad, and Godly moments each week. What a meaningful reflection!
Penny Brown
Yes, regularly finding God in the world around us is a wonderful practice, and practice does make perfect!
I also believe that Biblical statements like this are promises of our true identity, we are made in the image of God, truly perfect, it just takes more than a lifetime to realize it.
So, “be good and have a nice time!”
Thanks Krista