If you are going to see a movie, you don’t want someone to tell you how it ends, right? When you are driving your car and see an octagon shaped sign, what do you do? You stop. A red light at the signal also means to stop. The warning label on a pack of cigarettes says that smoking can cause cancer of the lung, have you quit smoking? You know that too much sugar is like poison to your body, and if you are diabetic it can actually mean death, yet I know someone that just adds an extra shot of insulin so they can eat whatever they want. Young people are warned about unprotected sex, yet the number of people with venereal disease is on the rise, as is teen-age pregnancy. We don’t want to be told what to do, or how to do it!
I find that applies to most everything, at least with people I have dealt with in the past. No one really wants advice, we all think we are the exception to any rule that we can make anything right, we have an excuse for everything we want or want to do.
You are in love with someone, the perfect someone, and then you see a major character flaw and it just doesn’t matter because you feel that you are the person that can make them change their ways. I call it the Beauty and the Beast complex, and how, you may ask, do I know so much about that particular subject?
There is a tree in my front yard, the trunk rises high and then separates into four big, perfect branches that leaves a place for a wonderful nest. This is right next to our majestic magnolia, planted the week we moved into this house. From this magnolia, I watched the squirrels take small branches and leafs to build a nest in the pocket of those four branches and as I watched them I wished that I could talk to them and tell them that whereas they were building their cozy nest in a convenient and easy place to build that it was also convenient for the hawks that are plenteous around here to see and easy to rob. I could have told them that I have stood at the base of that tree with water hose in hand screaming to the top of my lungs, trying to scare off the hawk robbing the nest of it’s tender young contents. The squirrel parents were there just below the nest on the trunk of the tree, screaming at him also but to no avail. Off he flew with his meal clutched tightly in his talons, too late. A few days after I watched them build the nest I had walked outside and there on the walk was a small branch with three magnolia leaves on it. I walked across the driveway to the base of the tree and saw more of those carefully selected branches on the ground and feeling sick to my stomach I looked upward where I saw the nest hanging over the side, branches askew, too late, it has already happened. I remembered seeing that hawk making several passes at the nest yesterday, hoping that he would not see it. He saw.
We are given warnings all through the Word of God, advice on how to live and act, but do we always heed the warnings?
1 Peter 5:8-11 Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. You’re not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It’s the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won’t last forever. It won’t be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are! —Will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does. Just because something is easy to do, does not mean it is the right thing to do, just because you can do it and get by with it, doesn’t mean you should.
What have you been warned about? What are you ignoring as “old fashioned”, or a “religious spirit”?
Haggai 1:5 “Now”, says the Lord God, “Consider your ways.”
A word to the wise is sufficient.
Harolene.com 