"Behold how they love one another..." 4

So I probably sound like I'm contradicting myself. I am - the curse of seeing things from far too many perspectives.

But when it's time to take a turn in the road, when it's all said and done, do we search the scriptures as individuals? Do we fall on our knees and search the scriptures together as a Body? Especially if you're a new church.

What's this? "Thy will be done...?" What does it mean?

Where will I stand? How will I decide where to stand on this issue or that issue? When I meet Jesus and He's looking at me eyeball to eyeball do I have every confidence that I'm standing right where I need to be? Will it matter?

I think the hardest thing for my kids in our house was that it didn't matter who was right and who was wrong if they were treating each other badly. Treating someone badly is just wrong. If you were right but you were really mean about it, you'd end up having to apologize. You'd have to find something nice to do for the person you hurt, even if they were wrong. Some of my kids had such a hard time with that. Extending mercy violated their sense of justice. It's hard to extend mercy when it's easier to judge. It's hard to hold your ground and take a stand when you'd rather forgive and forget and walk away.

God is gracious, God forgives but I still believe that God will judge us as individuals and as peoples. Our choices have consequences. Often far-reaching consequences. And we can rarely see the end from the beginning.

We have to follow where the Spirit of God leads individually, hopefully in the context of a faith community, hopefully with a foundation of prayer and scripture but what happens when we don't agree? Who's right? Who's wrong? You have the law, but you also have Ecclesiastes and Jesus. Maybe it's not even a matter of right or wrong. Maybe it's just that each choice we make will lead us somewhere. This choice will take us to a different place than that choice. Good? Bad? Or just a different expression of the nature of God? I don't know. Maybe with each new generation, new wine skins for new wine.

There's a time for every purpose under heaven - a time to love and a time to hate. But I'd venture that because we're His Body and His children, it matters to God that in the midst of all our differences we learn how to love one another and be gracious to one another.

What better gift can we give to our children than the skills they need to love God with all of their heart and to love the people they disagree with without compromising their sense of purpose?

Let us be very very wary of putting kids in the middle of our battles. Wrestle for kids. Wrestle with ideas. Wrestle with God but don't stop loving all the people who are affected by your choices. Whoever we are, as believers, we represent more than children, more than our congregations, more than Christianity, more than ideas - we represent the Living God. We owe it to Him to walk prayerfully and circumspectly.