Whether you call it backstabbing, mud-slinging, disparagement, gossip, or some other term, it doesn’t do us any good to burn down another person’s house. Negative comments don’t do us any good.
We can tear our friends and neighbor’s down if we like, but we still end up in the middle of a mess. We look weaker for it. We know if someone is negative about another person, they are most likely negative about us as well. So we are cautious about that person. What house will they burn down next?
Politicians have been caught in this trap for decades. When they go against each other, it’s the last person standing that may win, but they don’t look any stronger. The negative ads and comments only make the victor look weak.
It is far better to love our neighbor than to burn down their house. Let’s keep our neighborhood pristine and keep the conversation positive.
Garbage in, garbage out is a cliche not just for computer programmers but for people as well. Do we consider how the media we consume affects us? Could we do better by intentionally consuming material that will lift us up as well as others? In other words, is what we’re taking in edifying?
Published in the “Church of God ENewsletter.”
I will confess that I have to watch this all the time. Like everyone else, I am prone to take the bait of breaking news that is really more broken than breaking. I can be drawn to clickbait about a football player with a bad attitude or an outrageous politician that said something offensive.
We all have choices. None of us need to be led along by sensational headlines that only give us mental junk food. The Internet can give us just as much good material as the bad. We just have to be more intentional and look for it. Let’s look for the lofty today.
It is a special quote for me because it has inspired my son and daughter to help others through counseling. The quote comes at a point The the Lord of the Rings trilogy when all seems lost. And there are days when that seems the case today. But there is still good in the world. We must be the good and show good to others.
Fight the good fight. Fight with love, peace, and mercy. Do not succumb to evil or the tactics it employs. Fight with wisdom and discernment. There is still good in this world and it is worth fighting for.
Frequently, our culture encourages us to confront others. If they don’t believe what our group believes, they are heathens that we should deal with. Media and advertisements tell us we’re okay and if there is any problem, it’s because of “those” people.
This philosophy is enticing because it takes the responsibility off of us. We’re off the hook if everyone else is the problem. We don’t have to change and our kids are all right!
However, the problem with this outlook is nothing ever changes. We discover the other group thinks they are in the right as well. So we have a choice between trying to coerce someone else to change or changing ourselves. And who do we have more control over?
And of course, if the other group is the problem, we must confront them. We should tell them that they’re wrong, ridicule them, shame them and if necessary, fight them. When we do this, we join a proud tradition of going to war.
In this quote, Benjamin Franklin reminds us it is only ourselves that we can change. We have plenty of vices to work on. Let’s start where we are and make this next year a better one.
When we were children, Christmas was always a magical time of the year. We had big wishes for amazing toys. Many of us reasoned if we just got our act together between Thanksgiving and Christmas, hopefully, Santa wouldn’t notice our behavior the other eleven months of the year.
Then we grew up. Some of us got naughty while others remained nice. It seemed to be so easy for those made of sugar, spice, and everything nice.
I must have been naughty in 2014, while my wife remained nice.
Christmas morning is a little different when you are grown up and spent the night before deciphering assembly instructions, written in questionable English. Many a Christmas Eve, early Christmas morning, I would be squinting in the low light while the TV proclaimed midnight mass from the Vatican. It made it very difficult to get mad and throw things when the Pope was blessing everything and everyone.
Now, not only am I grown up, but so are my kids. And there aren’t any grandchildren yet. It feels like a bit of a Christmas desert these days. There are no toys under the tree. Instead, there is a surely cat (she’s not a Christmas present. She just likes to lay under there and chew fake pine needles). And this year, there won’t be excited kids getting us up to announce the obvious; that it’s Christmas morning.
Is it as sad as Erma Bombeck proclaimed? Perhaps not. I still have a very nice, beautiful wife that just oozes Christmas spirit. She knows just what I need, even though I had no clue. Who would’ve thought I was out of tube socks anyway? I sure didn’t!
My hope for you is that if you have young children, it will be a wonderful magical Christmas for you this year. If not, may you be able to reach back into time, reminisce about a few Christmases long ago, and see it through the eyes of a child. I think that’s what I’ll be doing with my sugar and spice wife.
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