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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion February 2, 2005 MOUNTAINTOP |
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Frontline Devotion for Wednesday, February 2, 2005 By
Penny Risen
Matthew
7: 1-5
It was surprising to see them there together at the party. I knew that this
long-married couple had split up, and the husband had moved out for several
months. But there they were back together, calm and smiling, chatting
easily with others.
“When the kids went off to college, we didn’t have any excuse to keep our
gripes to ourselves,” the wife explained. “We sniped at each other
constantly, until Ted moved out.” A counselor’s advice was one answer to
their success at starting to patch things up, she said. Whenever either spouse
felt himself letting a grievance or an argument get out of hand, he’d stop and
say:
“Do I really want to die on this mountain?”
In other words, is this issue that I’ve built up in my mind really something I
want to continue to berate or judge my husband/wife about? Does this nick-picky
thing real matter so much to me, that I’d let it become a deal-breaker in our
marriage? Do I really want to cut off my escape route from this pinnacle I’ve
driven us to, and let our marriage perish on this “mountain”?
This offbeat turn of phrase seemed to work for my friends, to stop them from so
quickly judging each other, to be willing to keep silent at stressful moments,
and start mending their relationship by “climbing down off that mountain.”
"Don't pick on
people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults
unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical
spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's
face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own.”
--- Matthew 7: 1-3 The Message Bible
In Matthew 5 through 7, Jesus is heard preaching from the mountaintop on every
conceivable issue dealing with how to live as God’s children and how to treat
our fellow men and women. His beautiful lesson, The Beatitudes, is included in
this Sermon on the Mount section of the Gospel. Jesus is describing what kind of
person is truly part of “the kingdom of God.”
God knows that none of us is perfect and that our freewill sometimes makes us
feel like we are “the boss” of others. We often can see faults in each other
before we recognize our own shortcomings. Humans are judgmental and critical by
nature, but some folks are more “in your face” about it: Quick to argue,
quicker to condemn. This attitude gets in the way of healthy relationships, as
my friends said they’d learned, when they let their anger escalate and bias
distort their marriage.
Our Heavenly Father still loves us in spite of our faults, and He looks on us
with forgiveness and grace. We too should be able to look past what we perceive
as the faults or shortcomings of others --- and to seek forgiveness of those we
might wound with our unguarded words. We can take into our hearts Jesus’
lessons from the mountaintop, instead of letting judgment and anger leave us up
there at the peak, alone and miserable.
Prayer for the Day: Dear Lord, You’ve given me so many loving lessons in
how to treat and respect others. Let me use my words to praise You, and not to
criticize others You’ve placed in my path. Amen.
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