August 29, 2020 - A letter to my Christian brothers and sisters:
If you say that you are a Christian are you doing your best
to show others the love, kindness, and compassion of our Almighty Father? Are you showing the world how Jesus would act
and respond in such a time as this? Are
you doing your best to control your opinions, your words, and your actions, to
exemplify our Savior? Or are you
Christian in name only and not in action?
I have been there. I
called myself a Christian the entire 8 years Obama was in office and yet I
belittled him, called him names, spewed disrespect in my words and actions, and
said with my own mouth that I hated him.
I lost several friendships over this type of action and rightly so. I was not acting Christian in any sense and
only hurting many of the people I called friend, even family. I hope I will be forgiven by the Lord and the
people I hurt with my words and actions back then.
Fast forward, we moved in the President Trump era. I hear many of my friends and family doing
exactly to Trump what I had been doing to Obama and his people. How can I be offended when I know that I did
the same thing to another president? How
can I not forgive my Christian family and friends whose words and actions are
far from being any kind of love or compassion when I did the same thing for 8 Obama
years? How can I call them Christian
hypocrites when I was exactly the same?
Nothing I did or said back in the Obama years changed
anything that happened in our nation during that administration. I spewed my hate for the man and it literally
had no effect, whatsoever, on his time in office. He didn’t hear me. Those closest to him did not hear me. 99% of the nation did not hear me. The only ones who heard me were the people in
my tiny, little circle of life. My unkind
outspokenness only caused grief for some of my family and my friends.
If you are a Christian and you are acting like I did, I
implore you, don’t do it. Don’t go
there. You will lose some of the people that
have brought you joy and smiles throughout the years. You will look back at yourself and wonder why
you abandoned your Christian values over hatred and disrespect for a man you do
not honestly know and never will. You
will never sit down and speak with the President of the United States and get
to know him. You do however know Jesus
Christ if you are an honest to goodness follower of Christ. He has told each of us to love one another,
not hate those who we do not agree with in values, morals, or even political stance. (John 13:34-35, Romans 12:10, I Peter 3:8). He has told us not to judge the actions of
others and let him take care of the world and the affairs of the world.
(Matthew 7:1, Luke 6:37, Micah 5:15, Jeremiah 51:11).
The word “heed” is defined as; “pay careful attention to;
take notice of.” The words “heed” is in
the NIV version of the Bible over 2,500 times.
Do you think the Lord was trying to get his point across to his people
that we need to take heed of his words, our words, his actions, and our
actions? I am trying harder and harder
these days to choose my words wisely or say nothing at all. The only way we can save our relationships with
family members and our relationships with friends and acquaintances is try our
best not to offend with our words and our actions. I am far from getting it all
right but I am trying. If you are a
Christian I hope you will try too.
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