What Gives Us the Right to Judge?

     Josh Duggar.  Just hearing his name this last week has stirred up all kinds of conversations, emotions, confusion.  Even June Boo Boo weighed in on the subject.  (Yeah, like she's an authority.)  And I completely fail to see how the actions of a grown woman who has chosen to date convicted child molesters has a right to say anything about anything or anyone, let alone the rest of us having to listen to her.
      But let's get back on track here before I end up saying more than I should.  And yes.  I have prayed for June.  First of all, let me say that God does not condone sin.  Never has.  Never will.  But God does forgive sin.  And when He forgives, He forgets.  While Josh Duggar acted inexcusably as he said, isn't all sin behaving inexcusable?   We can blame it on the devil.  And yes, he does tempt us.  But we choose whether or not we will follow his lead.
      Child molestation is wrong.  There is no excuse for it.  But so is lying, stealing, cheating, murder, knowingly not filing your taxes correctly, driving over the speed limit, gossip and yes, even judging others who do these things.  Anything there on the list sound familiar to you? 
     While I don't condone what Josh Duggar did, he asked God to forgive him and God did just that.  He asked his 'victims' to forgive him and....they did.  So this coming out in the media and everyone judging Josh is just as wrong, I believe, in God's eyes as the sin everyone is judging Josh for.
     Now that being said, you may wonder why I feel like I need to weigh in on the subject.  Well guess what.  I was a victim myself many, many years ago.  I know how it feels to be the one victimized.  I know how it feels to not be believed and to feel like you are dirty and have done something wrong when you haven't.  I know how it feels, all these years later as an adult, to remember those feelings.  To have the random thought of long ago just pop up for no reason.  To deal with unwanted memories.
     It took me years to discover all the truth.  And, you know, I don't think I really know it all yet and that's just fine.  But, I understand that many people who molest kids were victims themselves prior to their actions.  It wasn't until I realized that that I was completely able to forgive with compassion.  Do I hate who did things to me?  No.  Do I forgive?  Yes.  It still affects me today.  But yes.  I forgive. 
     And I understand that's what happened in the Duggar family.  God forgave.  They forgave.  They grew closer to God and to each other as a family.  Just like with any sin, Jesus died on the cross for what Josh did.  When Josh came to the Lord and asked for forgiveness, immediately his sin was washed away by the blood of Jesus.
     Jesus said, when the woman was brought to Him in adultery, for anyone who was there who had not sinned to throw the first stone at her.  He didn't say for anyone who hadn't committed adultery to start throwing rocks.  He said anyone without sin.  And you know what happened.  All of her accusers left.  Jesus forgave her and her life was changed forever.
     Now if Jesus doesn't condemn Josh Duggar anymore, what gives us the right?  Are we better than Josh?  More importantly, are we better than Jesus?  I'm not.  And the media isn't either.  Their handling of this situation is absolutely disgusting.  Those girls are now more victimized than ever before.  In fact, the entire family, including innocent little children who were not even born when that took place,  are now victimized because someone took private juvinile records and exposed them.  Jesus washed it away.  But the media didn't care.  Still doesn't.
     The fact that this situation happened all those years ago is something the Duggar family will have to deal with for the rest of their lives.  They knew when they chose to make their lives public that this could come out some day.  Do I agree with every choice they make?  No.  But I don't have to.  And they don't have to agree with me either.  Except for the fact the Jesus died on the cross for all of us.  For me, for you, for our friends, family, enemies and even for those in the media who thought themselves better than God when they exposed past forgiven sin.
    I've never tried to claim my life was perfect.  I've done stupid things.  I've sinned.  If you've read very many of my blog posts you know that my family has been through some difficult situations and I don't deny nor do I try to hide those things.   The decision of the Duggar family to not tell publicly what had happened is something I'm sure they prayed about.  I can't condemn them for not coming out about this earlier.  That's between them and God.  Again, what I do know, is that I don't have the right to judge them any more than anyone has the right to judge me.
     Like the Duggars, I choose to forgive.  I forgive those who have wronged me.  Do I sugarcoat things?  I try not to.  Do I think on whatever is good and true etc like the Word tells us to do?  I certainly try.  And forgiving past wrongs done to me is a part of that.  Some may say I'm looking at life through rose colored glasses.  But I don't agree.  The tint on the glasses I see through.......that tint was made by the blood of my Savior.  Isn't that the way we are supposed to see things?
     Now.  What gives us the right to judge?  Nothing.  That's God's job.  And once the blood of His Son has been applied, there's no judgement necessary.  Do you know Him?  Would you like to?
    

What Do People Think?

     Ever hear "You're the only Bible some people read"?  Well it's true you know.  Proverbs 23:26, where a father is advising his son, reads "Pay close attention, son, and let my life be your example".  Let's take that a little farther.
     But first I have to tell you something funny that happened just yesterday.  While doing some grocery shopping at Wal Mart, my on-duty firefighter husband texted that they were on their way to Wal Mart as well.  After arriving he called me.  I told him I was in the frozen section and he informed me that the other two guys were walking by there.  I turned around just in time to wave at them.  They just looked at me and kept walking!   This being a new crew, one who had never met me, it was quite funny wondering what was going through their minds.
     As hubby and I met up in the next isle, we walked and talked.  But then he walked in front of my cart and I noticed something.  There, on the seat of his navy blue uniform pants, was the remnants of a milk chocolate bar!   Now comes the dilemma.  What would people think if he continued to walk around Wal Mart with chocolate on his back side?  Would they say something to him?  Or simply take pictures of his chocolate covered tushy and share them on social media?
     Quickly we chose the 'clean-it-off' option.  As we stood in the isle, just outside of the ice cream and frozen treats, I began cleaning off the chocolate.  It was bad.  Even required the ole mom spit trick where you lick your finger and wet the spot.  Now can you even imagine what people were thinking?  Public perception.....some blond woman grabbing the rear of a fireman right there in Wal Mart!  Hmmm......
     Well being the quick thinker he is, my firefighter Captain husband decided to ask his crew if they saw the blond in the frozen isle.  He was going to tell them that this blond not only waved at him but grabbed his backside!  It turned out that they saw us talking to a sweet lady who was doing a food demonstration so I was introduced as his wife instead and I got to ask who put the chocolate in the seat before he sat down.  :)  Still funny wondering just what people were thinking though!
     Now back to serious stuff.  While going through a particular difficult struggle recently I told my husband I just needed to talk about it.  That night he made it a point to let me do just that.  Understanding that I had been extremely upset about a certain situation, he let me talk and talk.  Then he talked.  Remember when I wrote about praying for him to have wisdom? See  Nobody Ever Loved Me Like You Love Me . Well those prayers are definitely being answered.  I've never known anyone so wise.  Perfect?  No.  Wise?  Yes.  He had amazing insight and responses to my concerns.  Things that I just couldn't see clearly because I was too upset, well he knew just what to say.   But the biggest thing that got me......he reminded me that first and foremost I needed to be Christlike. 
     Boy did that hit home.  Convicted me because that wasn't at all how I had been acting.  Calmed me because I knew he was right.  As Christians, we are examples.  If we want others to come to Jesus, how should we behave?  Not like I had been behaving for sure. 
     In the last few days, I am thankful to say that my attitude has changed tremendously.  The situation hasn't changed.  But it's not in my hands.  My job is to be like Christ.  Like my wise husband reminded me.  Will I fail again?  Probably.  Am I concerned about what people think of me?  Not really.  But am I concerned about how I represent my Lord?  Definitely. 

Miss Interpretation

     Miss Interpretation.  She's a very confusing lady.  Sometimes she causes lots of trouble.  Take texting for example.  Someone texted the word "morning" to me today after I had texted a question.  I didn't know if it meant "good morning", "in the morning", "top of the morning", "morning has broken" or maybe even "I'm in mourning".  But  I do know that I'm pretty good at misinterpreting.  In fact I have been know to go into quite a rant because I didn't read every word.  And of course, sometimes little Miss Interpretation comes from the other party.  Someone gets hurt.  Someone gets mad.  Oh my, that Miss Interpretation.
     Just today I was driving home for lunch.  I noticed that a paint store had taken down it's sign and a new sign was on the building.  At first glance I read "marital arts".  You can imagine what all I was thinking!   Must be some sort of new age place where married couples went to learn new ways to communicate or something.  Well, when I drove back by a little later, I realized I had Miss Interpreted what it said.  It was actually "martial arts".
     This last week I witnessed and participated in lots of misinterpretations.  One was really funny and probably more of a language issue because English is not her native tongue.  Unless maybe I'm the one that's wrong.......What happened was this.  A lady was trying to tell me something about the day after tomorrow.  At first she said 'tomorrow'.  Realizing that wasn't quite right, she changed it to "three-morrow"!!!!!!  It was all I could do to not laugh!  Two-morrow.  Three-morrow.  Loved it. 
     Yesterday was Mother's Day and my family is learning to interpret me.  I'll take flowers for pretty much any occasion!  And they got me three bouquets!  Made me very happy.  But before that, I decided to visit my mother-in-law in the nursing home.  My intent was to be there for the church service with her as part of her Mother's Day gift.  Instead, we had a tornado warning and I found myself helping coral little old ladies in wheel chairs while we waited for the danger to pass.  One lady kept insisting that she needed to go to the bathroom.  She sat in her wheelchair smiling and insisting that she needed to 'go'.  At one point she was told that it was too dangerous to be in the bathroom during a tornado.  In fact, she was even told that water would shoot up out of the toilet if a tornado actually happened!  Well there was no Miss Interpretation there.  That little old lady may have been in a wheel chair and hard of hearing.  But she knew when she was being told a big fat lie just to get her mind off needing to go to the bathroom.
     Later in the day yesterday we went out to eat.  It was nice.  Then, as we left the restaurant, we heard a crash.  An older pick-up truck squealed its tires as it sped off down the street.  Unable to see the license plate, we looked over to the parking  area where the crash had happened.  There we noticed the car it had hit and thought someone might need help so we hurried over.  Asking the driver if he was ok, he just looked at us calmly and said he was.  Then we noticed someone sitting in the passenger seat texting as if nothing had happened.  That's when we realized.  What we had perceived to be a hit and run had apparently been an illegal activity gone wrong!  That's when Miss Interpretation just about got us in big trouble. We left......quickly!
     While these stories are not really big deals, well we hope they aren't anyway......what is a big deal is when we misinterpret God's Word.  We tend to interpret the Bible the way that fits our needs.  But sin is sin.  God doesn't accept it.  If He did, there would have been no reason for Jesus to die.  There is no sin, whether we thing it's big or little, that God will accept.  Even our thoughts matter to Him.  Proverbs 11 is full of amazing examples of what God accepts and doesn't accept.  V 5 "Honesty makes a good person's life easier, but the wicked will cause their own downfall."  Seriously.  There is no misinterpreting God in this chapter.  It even tells us that the righteous are protected from trouble but it comes to the wicked instead.  Can you argue with that?  Well you can try, but it won't do you any good.
     So where do you stand today?  Are you living a righteous life?  Or are you interpreting your life as righteous while God declares it wicked?  It's your choice.  You can Miss Interpret all you want.  But if you're living contrary to God's Word, well you can only do that for so long.  There will be a day of judgement.  And no Miss Interpretation will be allowed.