Monday; August 22

Have you noticed how easy it is to embellish what is going on in our lives? When most people read this statement, their first thought is probably the vanity of pride and arrogance. Now, while this can be a problem, I think there is another issue. Have you noticed how easy it is to exaggerate how bad things are going in our lives? Whether it is our health issues, job problems or even church difficulties; it is tempting to talk about how tough things are for us. When we do this, it might make us feel better (and in an odd way more relevant to the world around us); yet it comes with a cost. First of all, when we develop a reputation of constantly seeing the half-empty glass people will stop wanting to spend much time with us. There is so much negativity being spread around these days why would I want to expose myself to even more gloom? Secondly, when we embellish what is going on, we lose trust. When we inflate our problems, people will tend to dismiss us – especially when things really do get bad (remember Chicken Little). Yet, maybe the most disastrous aspect of this is what it says about our relationship with God. When we whine and fuss, we tend to paint God is a negative light. If things really are as bad as we say, people might not want any part of our religion or see any value in developing a relationship with “our” God.

Let’s be honest about the problems and issues in our lives. When things are tough, let’s deal with them … but when they aren’t let’s not make them out to be worse than they really are.

Think About It!

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