Viewpoints. How you were raised, how you think, your morals, your beliefs all determine your viewpoint. Until recently I was pretty much concrete in my viewpoints, until an unexpected eye doctor appointment.
My eye doctor appointment was scheduled with a very well known eye doctor in town. I called and instructed them I had woke up with the issue today and it seemed more intense than usual. They made me an appointment for 3:20 PM. At 3:00 PM I arrived and proceeded in to fill out any necessary paperwork ahead of time, but the doors were locked up. Due to the COVID-19 I thought the doors were locked to screen visitors so I called in. "Your appointment was scheduled for (another town an hour away)." I was furious. I had called the phone number for the location where I was now standing, but they scheduled me for a town over an hour away- without telling me in advance?! Then they proceed to tell me if I can be there by 3:50 PM they will go ahead and see me. NO WAY. It was a 45 minute drive plus, in good weather but today is was pouring the rain. I cancelled the appointment and to be quite honest I was HOT. Then I got a bright idea!
I will google other eye doctors in the area and see if any of them can see me. Sure enough one that was 10 minutes away told me to drive right over and they would fit me it. Let me just say- GOD THING. This as the eye doctor I needed to be at but didn't know it at the time. After jumping through all of the COVID-19 precautions once I was inside, I finally got to see the doctor. I had test after test after test and learned two very important things. Well actually three.
One, I at 36 years old, have the starting of glaucoma in my right eye. Good to know, now I need to come back more often and get it addressed if it gets worse.
Two, I have 20/20 vision and no astigmatism. Now why is that important? Because previous eye doctor had me on prescription eye glasses and said I had an astigmatism in my right eye. (No wonder my eyes hurt and my vision felt wonky after I took them off. I DIDN'T NEED THEM!)
But the third one was the kicker, my color vision in my right eye was not the same as in my left eye. As an artist, this poses some particular pitfalls! Wait, what!? You mean I can see the same exact thing with my own two eyes but what I see with one eye will not be the same as what is seen with my other eye? EUREKA!
If I can do this within my own head, (with color vision) no wonder two completely different people look at life scenarios very differently!
With all of the rioting and the racism issues being screamed at right now in our nation, I am hurt. I am hurt that people are treated differently because of their skin color. I am hurt that one people group is condemning another people group because of one incident. I am hurt that we have the issues we have of stealing, killing, lying, cheating, gossiping, and on and on and on. To me it is quite simple.
Matthew 22:37-39
"Jesus said unto him, Though shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
This makes life SOOOOOO easy!!! You don't want your stuff stole from you? Don't steal from others. You don't want others lying to you? Don't lie to them! You don't want others killing you our your family? Don't do it to them! You don't want someone vandalizing your property? Don't do it to theirs! You don't want someone shooting you? Don't shoot them!
GUYS WHY IS THIS SO HARD FOR SOME PEOPLE!!!?????
Now let's address another matter. The only way that we can all live in unison in peace IS TO HAVE LAWS TO GOVERN HUMAN BEHAVIOR! My ideals about how I should act are going to be different from yours so there has to be a standard. For Christians it is the Bible. But if you look at the Bible and most of our land laws now, they are very similar. Jesus even tells us to obey our government (unless they are telling us to do something that is against God's law).
Matthew 22:21
"Jesus said, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."
Romans 13:1
"Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities."
It does not matter your personal opinion on if you like it or not, if you live in the land , you obey the laws. If you don't like them move to another country! Your mama ever tell you, you live in my house, I pay the bills, I feed you, you either go by my rules or you can move out!? Mine did and boy did I listen to her rules. Same principle. If you don't like the rules where you are, move to somewhere that has the laws you like. YOU DON'T GET TO DO EVERYTHING YOU WANT. You just don't. I don't. We all don't. We have laws.
If you break the laws, you get arrested. I KNOW there are crooked cops, politicians, judges and on and on and on. I have seen it with my own two eyes. But acting a fool, breaking laws, looting and vandalizing doesn't do one thing about those people. All it does is make insurance policy premiums go up FOR EVERYONE even the people looting and doing all the trouble making. You have a right to riot....that is funny.... lol. BUT you must do it in a lawful manner. If you are trying to have your voice heard you will just shut people out if you do it by causing problems to their stuff. If you want to get through to people you have to be kind and respectful. Be the change you want to see. Act the way you want others to act!
And let me make this really simple. ALL LIVES MATTER! BLACK ,WHITE, BLUE, GREEN ORANGE, PURPLE RED, YELLOW........ WE ALL MATTER. We are all created equal. And shame on anyone who doesn't get that. God created all humans, whether you agree with them or not. And you will pay on judgement day for how you treat or do not treat others.
If we LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR AS OUR SELF all these problems in our nation will go away. No matter your skin color, no matter your ethnic background, no matter if I agree or disagree with you, I love you. I may not want to be around you, but I can still love you from a distance. I can pray for you when we disagree and I can pray with you when we agree. I will not be around you though if I don't trust you.
People I get it, I really do. My OWN FAMILY has stabbed me in the back so many times I don't even count any more. (Not my immediate family, my extended family, my immediate family is an AMAZING GIFT FROM GOD!") So I know hurt. I also know that those people act from their own personal issues. If people don't like me, who cares. You think I am going to change for them? NO. I will move on to the people who do like me. God created me to be me and if they don't like it, I DON"T CARE. They can just keep on walking. Don't you change for anyone else either, except for God. You live for an audience of one, God. Treat EVERYONE as yourself. Remember, the people who hurt you they have their own personal issues, it has nothing to do with you.
Back to my eye doctor appointment, apparently my eye was sick. It needed steroids and some antibiotics. It is doing much better now but it still has a road of recovery ahead. And just like that, with a little bit of examination, calling the issue my eye had an issue and treating it, my vision is returning to normal. It is going to take time but it is getting there.
Same is true for us. Examine your heart on these issues. If there is an area that God reveals to you is wrong, call it an issue and let God work to change it. Apply your medicine to your heart, read God's word, apologize if you have done someone wrong, forgive if you need to forgive but it is not worth all this craziness that is going on our world. We are only destroying ourselves by continuing on the path we are on.
I know someone is going to get offended by this but I have my freedoms of speech just like you do. if you leave ugly comments, I won't approve them, in fact my programs just filter them out so don't waste your time if you are going to be ugly. Share this post with others. Guys LOVE OTHERS AS YOURSELF and God will take care of the rest.
#loveyourneighborasyourself
#weareallequal
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